
Class ^^V ^Sc^\ 
Copyright N!* 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



> 



HELP FOR THE TEMPTED 



This hook is also published in a 
pamphlet edition, attractively printed 
and bound in heavy pap) er, and sold at 
the price of fifteen cents a copy, ten 
copies for one dollar. 

It is hoped that the inexpensive 
edition may he used in quantities, for 
free distribution, by pastors, evangel- 
ists, Christian workers of all kinds, 
every one who loishes in this way to 
help the tempted. 

The price of the small-page, cloth- 
hound edition is seventy-five cents. It 
is also to be obtained hound in full 
leather, gilt top, for $1.25. See the 
address on the opposite page. 



Help For 
The Tempted 

And That Means 
All of Us 



By./ 
AMOS R. WELLS 



?W 




5 5 ) 

1 5 



5 5 

5 5 :> 



3 5, 3D? 






BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
United Society of Christian Endeavor 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

FEB 20 1903 

Copyright Entry 

cuss Ciy XXc No 

COPY B. 



Copyrighted, 1902, 1903, 
By AMOS R. WELLS. 

Copyrighted in Great Britain. 



t c "^f c c 



Contents 

Page 

A Word with You 7 

I. Help from Confidence 9 

II. Help from a Mastered Mind ... 16 

III. Help from a Full Mind 25 

IV. Help from Christ's Presence ... 34 
V. Help from the Thought of 

Eternity 43 

VI. Help from Mortification .... 51 

VII. Help from Widened Interests . . 60 

VIII. Help from a Vigorous Body ... 68 

IX. Help from Hell 76 

X. Help from Heaven 84 

XI. Help from Human Dignity .... 93 

XII. Help from Vigilance loi 

XIII. Help from THE Atonement . . . .110 

XIV. Help from the Bible 120 

XV. Help from Prayer 129 

XVI. Help from Out-of-Doors 138 

XVII. Help from Recreation 147 

XVIII. Help from Confession 155 

XIX. Help from Conscience 165 

XX. Help from Friendship 174 

5 



A Word with You 




HAVE written this book to help 
myself. It has helped me, already 
in the writing of it, and so I hope 
it will help you. 

For the world is so full of sin ! Who- 
ever you are, though I know nothing 
else about you, I know that you are a 
sinner, as I am ; tempted, as I am ; strug- 
gling, as I struggle, against fearful odds. 

Never dare call yourself a less sinner 
than another man — or a greater. 
God alone sees men's hearts. Compared 
with God's purity all men are equal in 
sin, as both lily and coal are silhouettes 
against the sun. 

Yes, the world is so full of sin ! How 
many are the letters I have received, 
I, an utter stranger, from the antipodes 
and close at home, from plough-boys and 
ministers of the gospel, confessing the 
most beastly sins, desperately and pa- 
thetically reaching out in the dark after* 
sympathy and help ! This book is my 
answer to such letters. 

And my answer also, as I said, to my 
own need, or it could not hope to 
be an answer to the need of any of my 
brothers. 



8 A Word <with You 

For the world is full of help. God has 
not left any man alone with Satan, nor 
with only one weapon against the devil. 

I have found all these helps helpful, one 
at one time, one at another. I cannot 
arrange them in order, for no man's 
temptations are orderly ; temptations are 
essentially disorder. And though not 
all by any means help me equally, I 
cannot arrange them in degrees. 

Whatever helpfulness this book has, 
therefore, will not be discovered by 
a single reading. It is to be kept by 
you, carried with you, reviewed again 
and again, loaned to our brothers in sin 
and temptation, copies of it given away, 
and read in the light of their lives as well 
as our own. This book has taken fifteen 
years to write ; it might well require 
fifteen years to read. 

May the Father, whose loving Presence 
has been very close to me while I 
have been writing these pages ; may the 
Holy Spirit, whose recognized guidance 
has led me into whatever truth they con- 
tain and preserved me from whatever 
falsehood they do not express ; and may 
Christ, my Friend, my Brother, my 
Saviour, my Helper revered with all 
adoration, help, me and help you, as the 
blessed God is so eager to help, out of 
every weakness, sin, and snare, and into 
the strong humility, the obedient, glad 
purity, of the sons of God. Amen. 



Help for the Tempted 




Help from Confidence 

HERE is only one unconquer- 
able sin, and that is the sin 
you are not trying to con- 
quer. 

If you loathe your sin, though at the 
same time you love it, there is hope 
for you, and as long as you loathe it. 

For the sin — never forget this — is not in 
the deed, but in the mind ; and while 
your mind hates the deed and tries to 
flee from it, do not dare to think yourself 
wholly lost. 

Do not dare, I say, since thus you dis- 
credit the power of the Almighty, 
whose impulsion is beating in your con- 
science. 

Men sometimes ask me, with horror and 
disgust, whether they have commit- 
ted the unpardonable sin. Always I must 

9 



lo Help from 

say, '' No, my brother, so long as you fear 
it and are ashamed." 

^ T^hey have committed the unpardonable 

^if,^ai)^ i sin who sin until they reject pardon, 

v</vvUcvvbfv>-6pit upon it, make a mock of it, and for- 

j V S^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ have sinned. Every sinner 

'^'^'•^ is speeding toward that awful hardness, 

^^^^""^^^ but he has not reached it while he can 

^ bemoan his iniquity. 

Be of good hope, then, though daily for 
years you have fallen into the filth 
you despise. Sin is a foul stream, but it 
is a narrow one, and the firm bank is ever 
near. Ever near — until you reach the 
black ocean. 

And you have not reached the ocean 
while you can see the river-bank, and 
long toward it with a great outreaching. 

Let your conscience be your confidence. 
Dark it is around you, how dark ! but 
while that bell rings you are not utterly 
lost. 

Remember : you are not to think about 
your hold on God, — feeble, incon- 
stant, — but about God's hold on you. 

Remember : you are not to reckon up 
your failures, but dwell on His suc- 
cesses. How often He has conquered 
sin ! 

Remember : you are not to consider 
each fall — alas, so many ! — as a fall 
still farther from Him ; for He is in every 



Confidence 1 1 

place, no nearer the highest archangel S^Sxl>v^^M ^ 
than the lowest sinner. 

Though ten thousand times, after sin- 
ning, you have sworn, '' That shall 
be the last," swear it after the ten thou- 
sand and first. 

" ft is ten thousand times less likely to be 
1 the last than the first sin was " ? Yes, 
yes, ah, yes, if you look at your poor, 
weakened, miserable self. But Christ has 
not grown weak with your ten thousand 
sins. And He is your Reliance. 

<* D ^^ I ^^ t^^ thousand times less likely 
O to turn from my sin to Him than I 
was at first." True ; sadly true ; but He 
is there y and as close to you as at first; 
and you have only to turn. 

Oh, rouse in you the unconquerable 
will ! Do not for a moment acquiesce 
in defeat ! Do not for a moment say of 
your sin, '' It has become myself ! " Hold 
it aloof in your cHnched hands. Have 
no expectation but of the day when you 
will be free from it. 

ay, assert your instant freedom from l^ 

it. Do not postpone your emanci- C\vu^^-<a^^c^ 
pation. Let Now be your day of salva- ry^xfte ^ ' ^ 
tion. It may be Never, unless it is Now. 
And it can be Now. 

en conquer in battle by their confi- 
dence that they will conquer. Na- 
poleon's assurance- wrought as much as 



N 



M 



12 Help from 

Napoleon's armies. Much more may 
you be confident, for instead of an arm 
of flesh you may have the Everlasting 
Arms. 

Despair is reliance upon self. You have 
proved it a broken reed. ** I will 
not," you have said ; and your next 
heart-beat has pulsed after your sin. '' I 
will not," you have said, and even while 
saying it have known that you would. 

But hope is reliance upon God. With 
Him, to desire is to will and to will is 
to do. 

Say to yourself: *' Though I fail again, 
as I have so often failed, it will not be 
God failing." 

Nay, do not say, *' Though I fail." Do 
not admit the possibility of failure. 
Say to yourself, *' I cannot fail, now. It 
is God, now, and no longer I." 

You are cheating yourself if you say, 
•' It is God, now " ? In your heart 
you know, *' It is sin, still " ? Well, is it 
not glorious to be so cheated ? Will it 
ever be true unless you believe it true ? 

Brother, take Christ at His word! 
" Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be white as snow." *' Ask, and ye 
shall receive." *' Thy faith hath saved 
thee; go in peace." 



Confidence 13 

Whosoever is saved from his sins must "| k rut^uT 
be saved in his sins. A drowning ^_ /z^ 

man may not pull himself from the sea n^^t^-^^^^* 
and then be saved. ^ 

Whosoever is saved, about him at one 
moment beat the black surges of his 
sins, overwhelming, horrible, not to be 
overcome ; and beneath him at the next 
moment lift the Everlasting Arms. 

Your despair is now no greater than it 
will be just before you are saved. 
You will not be saved by your confidence, 
but by Christ, — His hands stretched out 
in pity to yours flung up in impotence. 

Learn what it means, *' When I am weak, 
then am I strong." Gather confi- 
dence thus from your impotence. No j 
lack in all the universe but there is a ) 
supply. The deeper the pit, the readier 
are the waters to fill it. And how deep 
is the pit of your despair ! 

If Christ were in Sirius, well might you 
faint ; but your Confidence is by your 
side. 

If Christ were ever at a loss, well might 
you faint; but your Confidence is 
Omnipotence. 

If Christ ever turned away, well might 
you faint ; but always it is men that 
turn away from Christ. 



14 Help from 

Then be confident in Christ, brother ! 
Dare to say, '' I am saved ! " Not 
'* I hope I am saved," but *' I ajn saved ! '' 
Not, " I hope I shall be saved," but ** I atn 
saved ! " Dare to assert, '' I am done with 
sin, for I have begun with Christ." Clothe 
yourself in His armor, and know yourself 
invincible. Do not dream of defeat ; dream 
of Him. Do not look to yourself; look 
at Him. Do not remember the past; 
remember Him who has become your 
stainless and inevitable Future. 



A 



nd daily, hourly, pray this prayer: — 



Xor^ 5e6U9, wttb a bolDness ot peace 1F 
tru6t In ^bee* ^bou baet never tailed a 
60ul tbat trueteD in ^bee, anD ^bou wilt 
not begin, even witb m^ wretcbeD 60uU 
a^'Q 0ln l0 no longer mine ; It ie C^btne ; © 
•ffnttntte ConDescenelon, It l6 XTbine ! ttbou 
bast borne It awa^ from me, tar ae tbe 
east l0 from tbe west* IT am clean, anD IT 
will forget tbat toulnees* 1f am strong, 
anD tbe memon^ ot mi2 weal^ness sball pass 
awa^* Mben to^Dai^ tbe tempter comes, IT 
sball be witb Zhcc* Mben to=Day tbe olD 
allurements call, 11 sball listen to c:bee» 
Timben to=Da^ m^ beart sin?^s Down in an=* 
guisb ot borrible longing, ^bou wilt be m^ 
Defense against mi^selt, anD G^bou wilt bess 
come m^ Desire* H bave no tear, tor C^bou 
art m\2 assurance* Bot even Do IT tear 



Confidence 15 

m^eelt, tor ^bou ba6t become m^ Selt^ 
mo more 6tn, © C^bou m^ ipurtt^ ! IFlo 
more ebame, © ^bou m^ Ibonor! IR0 
more wavering anD ^eepalr, © n^bou tbe 
Ifmmutable Cbrlet! ^To ZM love be tbe 
filoris, time wltbout enD» amem 




II 

Help from a Mastered Mind 

O one is tempted from without, 
but from within. It is not cir- 
cumstances that tempt you, but 
desire ; not matter, but mind. 

The lily draws purity from the sHme, 
because itself is pure. The sensual- 
ist, into his rotten heart, would draw im- 
purity from a lily. 

One of the easy tricks of the devil is to 
persuade you that not you, but fate, 
is responsible for your sin ; not you, but 
things and happenings. T/iat is, God ; 
but God tempts no man. Neither does 
the devil tempt any man from without. 
It is not necessary, and the devil wastes 
no work. 

No ; when you are tempted you are 
drawn away of your own lust and 
enticed. Manfully stand up to that. 

And so the conquest of temptation is 
not the conquest of things, but of 
thought. 

1am asked, '' Where shall I go, to be 
free from this sin that is eating out 
my hfe ? " Nowhither. What avails to 

i6 



A Mastered Mind 17 

transplant a tree while the worm is at the 
heart of it ? 

1am asked, " What shall I do ? Into 
what sea of business shall I plunge, 
and escape my sin ? " Work is heaUng, 
but it is not the knife. A cancer is not 
to be cured by sawing wood. 

Look within. Sternly put away your 
cowardly excuses. Sternly acknowl- 
edge that no chance for sin would be a 
chance without your choice. Sternly 
say, " I — I — I — am the sin. God help 
me!'' 

The sinner's task is to master his mind. 
Here, in a few pounds of flesh, intri- 
cately folded, lies your battle-field of the 
brain, a battle-field some seven hundred 
square inches in area ! Conquer here, 
and you shall conquer everywhere else. 
Play the craven here, and demons shall 
mock you to the pit. 

For is it not laughable that man, who 
can clean great cities and carry water 
over a continent, cannot clean these Httle 
gutters of the brain ? Is it not absurd 
that man, who can raze forests and cast 
mountains into the sea, cannot erase a 
desire from his mind ? 

** /\/\ ister " means '* master," and " mis- 

i Vi tress " means " masteress " ; but 

many a ** Mr." and ** Mrs." would more 

truthfully write themselves down " Mas- 



i8 Help from 

tered." Mastered John Doe ! The slave 
of a desire ! 

1am learning, when temptation comes, 
to make my mind ice to it, so that it 
can get no foothold ; stupid to it, so that 
it can grasp no interest ; blind to it, so 
that it can only fumble in the dark ; 
numb to it, so that the thrill of its pleas- 
ure is blunted ; dead to it. 

1 cannot well describe the sensation. It 
is almost as if, at the approach of 
temptation, I were to take my brain, so 
curiously folded upon itself, so full of 
dark furrows for sin to lurk, and shake it 
swiftly, desperately out, till all its folds 
are smooth, their contents gone, the 
mind a safe and happy blank. 

And so I hold myself, oblivious, tense, 
withdrawn, until the stress of temp- 
tation is over, until I have summoned to 
my aid the heavenly powers. 

It is hke a moment's trance, into which 
I fly for safety, as a knight of old 
would put on his helmet of invisibility. 
And while I am asleep, the danger often 
passes. 

It is as when a babe falls into mischief, 
and the nurse, by a sharp and discon- 
nected outcry, so distracts the baby 
mind that when she is through, he for- 
gets what he was about. 



a. Mastered Mind 19 

This timely dulness and vacancy of 
brain serves me better on a sudden 
assault of temptation than an active de- 
fense, as a barricade of cotton is more ef- 
fective than a barricade of bricks. So 
the shrewd Japanese practise a deadly 
gymnastics whereby their bodies become 
fluid before the rush of an antagonist, 
who dislocates his shoulder or breaks his 
neck by sheer force of his own unop- 
posed onset. 

But there are many ways of mastering 
the mind, as there are diversities of 
mind to master. You may not make an- 
other's way yours, but you must make 
yours the spirit of mastery, the genius of 
self-control. 

For what avails it to have the power 
of swift thought, the godlike skill 
of transporting your spirit instantly from 
America to Persia, from this modern 
moment to the building of the pyramids, 
if that power is to whirl you shrieking 
away whither you would not go ? 

An automobile, a "self-moved," is a^^A<z^- 
wonderful machine so long as it is ryyy,^,,r^/tAMo 
not self-moved, but gHdes smoothly, in- ^~ 
telligently, at the twist of its driver's 
hand. But it is a terrible machine when 
it runs away. 

Oh, assert dominion over yourself! 
Raise on that mighty continent the 
banner of authority ! Let it be no empty 



20 Help from 

banner, like Maximilian's in Mexico, but 
heavy with determination, and its spiked 
pole thrust deep into the soil ! 

Be not half your own, and that the sur- 
face half, while the inward realities 
are in base subjection. The white ants 
of Africa eat out the inside of boards, 
leaving an unbroken exterior shell, so 
that an entire table will seem solid, yet 
crumble at a touch. Be not such a man. 

Convert your nature, by whatever fur- 
nace fires and workshop hammer- 
ings, into tempered steel, — facile, yet 
soHd ; keen, yet strong ; swift, yet en- 
during. Move as one. Be not divided 
against yourself. Become a whole. 

Make your mind an obedient tool. 
What if the carpenter's hammer 
should get on occasion a handle of flex- 
ible rubber ? What if his chisel should 
wear when it chose an edge of putty ? 
What if his saw should fly out of his 
hand and set itself to saw^ing the piano 
leg ? His tools would be no greater out- 
laws than many minds. 

You cannot control your feelings ? You 
cannot guide your emotions ? You 
cannot master your mind ? You do 
what you would not, and what you 
would not you do ? That is to be, in 
those points, insane ! 



a Mastered Mind 21 

Why ! suppose your tongue, when you 
bade it say ** horse," should say 
" acorn '' ; or your legs, when you 
wished to go forward, should turn back- 
ward ; or your hands, when you desired 
to open a book, should throw it out of 
the window. Would you not be alarmed 
about yourself? And will you view 
with equanimity a parallel condition of 
mind ? 

What ! you can shut your mouth or 
open it when you choose, chnch 
your fingers or stretch them out, close 
your eyes or admit the light ; and has 
God so formed you that your mind must 
be always open, for the access and free 
use of whatever foul emotion or sinful 
passion chooses to enter ? Has God 
made you master of all parts of your 
being except the part most necessary for 
you to master, the controlling part, your 
feelings ? 

Never say that you cannot help your 
feelings, that you must be gloomy, 
or lustful, or passionate, or intemperate, 
or heedless ; you were made that way. 
That is to slander your Maker. You 
were NOT made that way. 

No ; you were made to move as an or- 
dered universe, your Will at the 
centre as absolute lord. You were made 
to say to this emotion, Come, and it will 
come; and to- that feeling. Go, and it 



22 Help from 

will go. God never fashioned you to be 
slave of that most ignoble serfdom into 
which you have fallen, that bondage to 
your own base appetites. 

*'Dut I am in that bondage," you cry, 
D as myriads cry in their anguish. 
** I am lost in that serfdom. How can I 
ever get out ? How can I ever find my 
sceptre and my throne ? '' 

Brother, there is no mastery for the finite 
except as it is mastered by the In- 
finite. Sooner could you grasp the reins 
of the stars, sooner could you guide the 
galaxies along their way, than hold the 
leash of your passions — alone. 

You have tried it, and you know I am 
right. By a thousand failures you 
know it. By humiliations without num- 
ber, by self-abasements beyond count, by 
grovelings of the spirit and a frenzy of 
impotent grief. And you could go on 
thus forever, with your unaided will, 
groping wildly after the mastery of your 
mind, and grope in vain. 

Only by submission to the Spirit of 
God can you control your own 
spirit. 

Is it not so in all other matters ? Can 
you make a house stand firm except 
as you yield to God's law of gravitation ? 
Can you sharpen or consolidate a sword 
but by obedience to God's law of heat 



a Mastered Mind 23 

and cold ? Can you move an engine 
save through serving God's law of ex- 
pansion ? Long ago men learned in the 
material world to expect no mastery but 
through point-by-point subservience to 
the God of nature. Yet we seek without 
God to govern our souls ! 

Oh, yield to God, and your passions 
will yield to you ! Get the mind of 
Christ, and that will master your mind ! 
His very soul is spread before you in 
His recorded words. Saturate yourself 
with them. Breathe them in. Drink 
deep and steady draughts of them. 
Learn to think in terms of them. Dream 
of Christ. Talk with Him as you enter 
the day. Make withdrawal rooms in 
every task to talk with Him. Efface 
yourself. Assume Him. Become noth- 
ing. Make Him your All. 

As you do this, in sincerity, in humil- 
ity, in steady faithfulness, a power 
undreamed-of will come to your will. 
Passions that have lorded it over you 
will crouch at your feet. DeHghted,you 
will find yourself in control of the char- 
iot of life. Upon its shining axles flash 
obedient wheels. Fruitful valley and 
soaring mountain top are open to your 
range. Out of your flabby, contempti- 
ble servitude you have passed into an 
existence electric with exultant force. 
Men are moved by you, now. Tasks 
get easily done, now. There is growth, 



24 A Mastered Mind 

now, and progress and accomplishment 
and expectation. You are master of all 
things, since Christ has become Master 
of you. 

Pray then, brother, pray with whole- 
ness of heart : — 

asiee^cD Sa\>lour, save me to a:bi59elt ! IF 
am toll^ anD powerlesenese^ IT am failure 
atiD ebame* 1F bring c:bee onl^ emptiness 
anD Decais^ IT bave no continence but C:bi2 
grace, no merit but ^bis merc^» If Do not 
fenow bow even to submit mi^selt to Zbcc. 
IT cannot loose misself trom mi5 cbalns to 
fall at ^b^ feet* IF bave F^nown sin so long 
tbat IF Do not ftnow a:bee, anD loveD It so 
long tbat 1F Do not love ^bee, anD serveD It 
so long tbat 1F Do not Fmow bow to begin to 
serve a:bee. :fi3e XTbou mis JSeglnnlng ! Set 
Zh^ love wbere mine sboulD be, ^bis pers« 
feet service wbere mine sboulD be, ZM 
full sacrifice wbere mine sboulD be, anD Do 
for me tbese tblngs wblcb 1F owVq Dlmlis see 
IF SboulD Do for mi^self^ IF bave no will 
save to bave no wllL IF bave so DebaucbeD 
mi^self tbat IF cannot open tbe Door to 
Zhcc. 1F can oxkVq call to XCbee* Jforce It 
open, XorD ! center, anD rule* Drive out 
tbe Demons* Xet In tbe fresb air anD tbe 
sunsblne* tTaF^e control of mis life* HistelD 
?Cbee tbe masteris, wltb full purpose of 
soul, unreserveDliSt anD forever* Bmen* 



in 

Help from a Full Mind 




r is in vacant lots that the weeds 
grow. To parody the proverb, 
*' Satan finds some mischief still 
for idle — minds — to do." 



Moths do not destroy the garments 
that are in use, nor do sins corrupt 
a busy life. It is when the body is re- 
laxed that malaria seizes upon it, and it 
is in its hour of ease that the soul be- 
comes diseased. 

An army is broken by the gap in its 
front, a fort is taken by the unoccu- 
pied point of the wall, and it is through 
the vacancies of the brain that devils 
enter. 

I find it healthful to have no unclaimed 
minute for the fiends to claim. By 
preempting all the territory of my time 
I keep out evil immigrants. 

I find so many arrows flying abroad 
that I live my life under cover, and 
this continuous roof I place over my 
head is an ordered, comprehensive plan. 

Let those that are sorely tempted by 
any sin heed the injunction, " Oc- 

25 



26 Help from 

cupy — till I come ! " Occupy ! Fill up 
the space ! It is to the empty house, 
swept and garnished, that the devils 
come. 

Mortgage your day to God before it ' 
begins. Form a plan for every in- 
stant of it. Live by schedule. It is the ^ 
stagnant stream that rots. Keep your 
mind moving. 

Especially, where your temptation most 
easily and often assails you, there 
crowd in this barrier of occupation, as 
the dyke is made thickest opposite the 
strongest surges. 

Is it when your opening senses are half 
aroused by the dawn of a new day, 
and your vigor is relaxed by slumber ? 
Do temptations master you then? Let 
an alarm-clock startle you into entire 
wakefulness. Leap from your couch 
with no debate. Seize on your dumb- 
bells or Indian clubs. Put your body 
through its paces and cause it to remem- 
ber subjection to your will. 

Is it at some special season during the 
day that sin gains easiest control, as 
when you meet this person or that, when 
you must pass a certain place, see certain 
sights or hear certain sounds ? Contrive 
for that time your most urgent business. 
It is the swift runner that is not swerved 
from his course. 



a Full Mind 27 

Is it as you lie down at night, worn by 
the day, that demons press in among 
your distractions and readily subdue you 
to their will ? Then cultivate an over- 
mastering weariness. With fierce toil 
of brain and body, and especially of the 
body, so exercise yourself that from 
every nerve and muscle and from every 
corner of your brain will come the cry 
for sleep. Though you must toil till 
midnight, continue till the passion for 
slumber has crowded out all other pas- 
sions. 

It is good always to have a book at 
hand, a book you will read because 
you enjoy it. Save the small books to 
carry with you wherever you go. Keep 
a pile of books by your bedside. In the 
cars, on the street, at your work or your 
play, be companied by a good book. 

Often it will benefit you when you are 
not reading it, by the very pressure 
of it in your garments reminding you 
that it is there, as the presence of a 
friend is helpful though he may say no 
word. 

There are few defenses against tempta- 
tion like the studious habit. It does 
not so much matter what truth you 
study as that you study ."^ It is undisci- 
plined minds, like undisciplined troops, 
that Satan's cohorts drive before them. 



^ 



28 Help from 

A will that sets itself day after day to 
tread the path of English history is 
little likely to stray into the by-paths of 
debauchery. A determination that 
mounts with strenuous delight the 
rugged heights of mathematics will not 
grow flaccid under pressure of tempta- 
tion. The steady purpose that masters 
geology or German through the plod- 
ding of uncounted days and the careful 
economy of time will not easily be 
mastered by iniquity. 

In times of peace the soldier must go 
through all the motions of war, or, at 
the first onset of the foe, we shall have 
no soldier. He must load and fire daily, 
though only blank cartridges ; he must 
fix bayonets, though only to charge into 
the empty air ; he must fight, though 
only in sham battles. Obedience to 
orders must become a habit, courage 
and firmness must become instinctive, 
heroism must be drilled into a common- 
place and an inevitable. 

And so it is in the armory of some 
studious toil that the soul trains 
itself for the conflict with sin. The 
fibres of the mind grow sturdy, the 
powers of the mind become facile, swift, 
and imperious, as they wrestle with 
facts, and conquer some domain of 
science. 

ovel-reading and newspaper-reading 
will not bring this about, any more 



N 



a. Full Mind 29 

than a soldier could be made by leap- 
frog and tag. Leap-frog and tag are 
well in their way, but their way is the 
meadow-path, and not the highway over 
which armies march. 

Yet do not think to conquer temptation 
without recreation. The camp-songs 
do as much for the army as the military 
band, and the camp-jokes as the exhor- 
tations in the orders. 

No room is fully occupied that is oc- 
cupied with cannon-balls. There 
will be many nooks for something 
lighter to fill. 

No day is well planned that does not 
plan for play. There are two 
charms that send the foul fiend packing ; 
one is the Lord's Prayer, and the other 
is an honest, hearty laugh. 

Only, play when you play. Give 
yourself wholly to your happiness. 
Occupy your sport, make it an occupa- 
tion, here also leave no gap in your in- 
terest through which the devil may 
flash. 

And a great help, in this struggle with 
temptation, is an avocation, a '' fad,'' 
a side employment. In your house, 
whatever space is not filled by the furni- 
ture should be filled with pure air ; and 
your avocation may become the pure air 
of your life. 



30 Help from 

It may be binding books, as Gough did, 
and thus undoubtedly he triumphed 
over many an assault of his great tempta- 
tion. It may be filing newspaper clip- 
pings — my own especial joy ! It may 
be flowers or fiddle, butterflies or beetles, 
painting or poetry, fancy cakes or flying- 
machines. Whatever it is, so it be inno- 
cent, it will blessedly fill the crannies of 
your day, and help you to occupy — till 
He come. 

But these are artifices, — games and 
hobbies, and such indirections. 
They are devices that must be used, for 
many an end useful and refreshing. But 
the full mind will depend on no health 
outside itself, just as the prudent mind 
dares not. 

For amusements and avocations are the 
sport of circumstances ; and a rainy 
day, or sudden business, or a sickness of 
you or some other, may throw your 
prop into the middle of next week. 
Lean not hard on such a staff; especially 
in this imperative journey, this flight 
from sin. 

A full mind ! Better than a full dwell- 
ing, though packed with the spoil 
of exquisite travel. Better than a full 
library, though levant and morocco 
make fragrant half a mile. Better than 
a full pocket, though weighed down 



a Full Mind 31 

with diamonds. Better than a full 
drawing-room, though crammed with 
earth's wisest and loveHest. 

For a full mind is a palace, crowded 
with all delights and utilities. It is 
a library, whose books can be read in the 
dark. It is a fortune that no panic can 
shake. It fills your life with friends im- 
mutable by distance, differings, or death. 

A full mind ! that is fuller the more you 
take from it; always inviting, al- 
ways rewarding, always more fascina- 
ting than any allurement of vice. There 
is no medicine Hke this. This is the 
true gold cure for the drunkard. This is 
the golden cure for all drunken passions 
whatsoever. 

And how to get it ? Not by flabby 
wishes. Not by haphazard effort, 
careless outreach. Not thus are even 
houses filled, nor even pockets. Not 
thus, surely, is an immortal mind filled 
with eternal properties. 

No ; but thus : " Whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are hon- 
orable, whatsoever things are just, what- 
soever things are pure, whatsoever things 
are lovely, whatsoever things are of good 
report ; if there be any virtue, and if 
there be any praise, think on these 
things/' 



■U 



32 Help from 

<* \1 Hiatsoever " — the widest range, the 
VV deepest research, the fullest com- 
prehension. Not a snatch here and a 
fragment there. The entire domain of 
truth, purity, and loveliness. 

'* nrhink " — not the pedant's cold collec- 
A tion, that fancies he owns a truth 
because he has labelled it and pigeon- 
holed it, but that warm, loving, persist- 
ent brooding over a truth that alone ab- 
sorbs it into your soul. 

And '' on THESE things," and no others. 
Surely the field is wide enough. 
All art. All literature. All philosophy. 
All history and biography. All science. 
All philanthropy. All religion. I have 
named eight vast continents. Ah, when 
your mind, my brother, is at leisure from 
your necessary toil, is there a single one 
of these eight to which it hastens, eager 
and fleet as a schoolboy to the play- 
ground ? Is there one of the eight 
where it feels at home, where it has 
made even a beginning of ownership ? 

Oh, when we think how empty our 
minds are, how wretched compan- 
ions for themselves, how little we know 
of God and His world, and to what 
trivialities and bestialities we turn at a 
moment's leisure, we need not wonder 
that our minds fall easy prey to foulness, 
worry, anger, covetousness, and all other 
iniquities. 



a Full Mind 33 

So let us pray, and having prayed and 
as we pray let us act : — 

•ffntlntte Creatott IRevereD jfflba?;er of all 
tbese wonDers ot tbe vvorlDt tbese marvels 
of tbe mlnD, ?rbou bast spreaD betore me a 
tull table, anD If bave \)ccw eating busks 
wttb swlne^ ^bou bast calleD me to tbe 
tbrone room, anD H bave llveD in tbe cellar* 
^Tbou bast ottereD me DiamonDs, anD II 
bave fllleD mi5 banDs wttb Dirt* 'Bxib wben 
1[ bave DeserveD punisbment, to be cbokeD 
witb tbe oltal or bltnDeD In tbe cellar, 
G^bou bast continueD ^bis proffer anD ^b^ 
pleaDlng. jforgive me, Ibou 1boli2 anD 
Gracious ! Even i^et aDmlt me Into ZM 
fulness ! Even i^et la^ bolD upon mis i^^ 
terests, anD convert tbem to G^bi^self! 
Mean me from tbe love of foll^ to tbe love 
of wortb* IRebulie m^ slotb, anD transsa 
form it into cwcxq'q. IRebuTie mis beeDless:^ 
ness, anD cbange it to ambition* Sternlis 
Drive out tbe Demons, anD occupis> ob, 
occupB tbe mansion of ms soul ! amen* 



IV 




Help from Christ's Presence 



OU do not know Christ, or you 
do not know His presence 
with you, or you would not 
sin. 



Many a man has sinned in Christ's 
presence, but he has not known 
Him. Many a man has known Him, 
yet sinned, losing sight of Him and for- 
getting Him. 

To know Christ it is not enough to 
know about Him ; the devils know 
about Him, and tremble. The knowl- 
edge of Christ that saves from sin is not 
thought out but lived out ; it is not a 
conclusion but a conquest ; it is not an 
understanding but an undertaking ; it is 
not an appreciation of Christ's character 
but an apprehension of it. That is why 
many a man who thinks he knows 
Christ, yet, to his dismayed perplexity, 
continues in his sins. 

And to know Christ's presence with 
you, it is not enough to know that 
He is present. John knew it, yet slept 
in Gethsemane. Peter knew it, yet de- 
nied his Lord. 

34 



t^^ 



Christ's Presence 35 

The knowledge of Christ's presence 
that saves from sin is no vision of 
the eyes or understanding of the mind. 
For days a man sees a woman, but on 
one holy day he realizes that he loves 
her ; then for the first time he knows 
her presence. Shall the knowledge of 
Christ's presence be less than that ? 

1 think that Christ's entire life in 
the flesh was only to teach a very 
few men to see Him present in the 
spirit. But the joy of such a vision must 
be passed on, and through those few 
men will yet come the saving of the 
w^orld. 

Has the vision come to you ? Is your 
thought of Christ yet more than a 
thought ? Is it a Person ? 

Is Christ, in your honest view of Him, a 
Galilean carpenter lying dead in Syrian 
soil? When you picture Him to your 
fancy, is your picture in the past tense ? 
Do you imagine Him as He was, stilling 
the tempest on Gennesaret, and not as 
He is, quieting the storms in human 
souls ? 

When you think of Christ's words, 
'' Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
they shall see God," do you hear the 
words as an echo from the grassy slopes 
of Hattin, or as a warning and a promise 
spoken out of the living ether, in tones 
as vivid as your wife's or your mother's, 



36 Help from 

to the immediate, personal hearing of 
your heart ? 

Not as the mesmerized see unsubstan- 
tial visions, not as a dismantled 
brain is peopled with fretful ghosts, but 
as in walking down street you accost 
Friend Hazen, and as to your parlor you 
admit Mrs. Rader, so clearly and cer- 
tainly do you walk with Christ ? 

When your eyes first open from the 
mystery of sleep, does Christ, in 
no poetical fancy but in the most definite 
fact, bend over your bed. His breath 
warm upon your cheek, His eyes looking 
love into yours, and purity, and power 
for the day? Do you say to Him, 
*' Thank you for life again, dear Christ ; 
and what shall I do with it to-day?" 
Do you say it aloud, to Him hearing it 
and replying ? 

Do you go to your day's work with 
Him ? I do not mean in any mys- 
tical sense, as you would go with Pa- 
tience, or Prudence, or Courage, but as 
you would set out with your brother to 
cut a tree-trunk, he at one end and you 
at the other of a cross-cut saw ? as pro- 
saically, as surely, as gloriously? 

When happiness comes to you in the 
day, do you turn, the first thing, to 
show it to Him ? When you are per- 
plexed or saddened or dismayed, do you 
lean back upon His shoulder and whisper 



Christ's Presence 37 

to Him awhile? Is there no helper 
among the creatures of flesh so personal, 
so masterful, so indubitable, as He ? 

Does He sit beside you at the desk ? 
Does He bend beside you over the 
counter or the stove ? Does He swing 
with you the tennis racquet or the golf 
stick ? Do these suggestions appear 
fanciful to you, half profane, or do they 
seem the merest every-day occurrences ? 
Would it be His abseiice from these com- 
mon scenes that would be unreal to you, 
unbelievable, terribly strange ? 

Ah, my brother, work must be done ; 
yet it will be well with you if you 
say, '' I will set about no task to-day un- 
til Christ goes wdth me." The world is 
beautiful, enjoyable; but it will be well 
with you if you say, '' I will take no 
pleasure to-day until Christ takes it with 
me." That is never a task for you, or a 
sport, to w^hich you must go Alone. 
Better stop where you are, and for days 
wrestle with your evil heart till it is over- 
come, if you can go anyw^here Alone. 

Would your thought of Christ's pres- 
ence become more real to you if 
you could touch Him ? if He w^ould take 
in fleshly hand your hand of flesh? if 
His speech vibrated upon the veritable 
air, and you could photograph His face ? 
Would all this render His presence a 
whit more real ? Then you do not yet 
know His presence as real at all. 



38 Help from 

Do not cheat yourself with vain imagin- 
ings, with opinions dressed up as a 
Person and philosophy masquerading as 
a Fact. There is no midway between 
personality and impersonality. Either 
Christ is to you a Person, and so all that 
I have pictured, or He is only a world- 
memory, a sentence in a book, an idea 
in the brain, a thing. 

And Christ cannot be to you a person 
without being the Person, — test 
your faith by that fact. If He is real to 
you at all. He is the Supreme Reality ; 
wiser than your father, more loving than 
your mother, dearer than your wife, 
more engrossing than your children. 

And thus, O tempted soul, when you 
know Christ's presence, you will, 
you must, cease from iniquity. Think 
qf that sin ! Would you commit it in 
the presence of father or mother, wife or 
child? How much less in the presence 
of One dearer, more loving, than all ! 

It is easy to confuse your judgment, to 
trick and cozen your conscience ; but 
you know that you cannot cheat Him. 

It is easy to forget your good resolu- 
tions, but you cannot forget Him, 
looking at you. 

It is easy, there by yourself, to postpone 
honor, and purity, and self-respect, 
and manliness, and think you will be 



Christ's Presence 39 

stronger next time ; but you cannot 
postpone Him, speaking to you. 

'^ A nd you will not want to cheat Him, 
-Tk forget Him, put Him off. Truly 
perceiving Him, His love. His beauty, 
His might, you will have no wish but to 
do His will. The shadows wilt melt 
into His light. The uncleanness will be 
swallowed up of His purity. 

How shall we come to realize this Pres- 
ence, how may we live with the 
Lord ? Not without toil and striving ; 
/ not without continuance of purpose ; not 
without paying the price. 

The price is but an asking, but it is a 
great asking. It is the asking of 
desire, a hunger that longs irresistibly 
after Christ, and will not be wheedled 
^with half-christs. It is the asking of 
meditation, long hours fixed upon the 
one theme, to get at the heart of Christ, 
which lies at the heart of the Book. It 
is the asking of surrender, the abandon- 
ment of hindrances, the loathing of 
carnal lusts, the mortification of the 
body, the repression of the world. 

No double asking, reaching with one 
hand after Christ and with the other 
detaining sin,"*" will draw Christ a hair's 
breadth nearer. No half-asking, fitful, 
aimless, hopeless, will win the Beautiful 
Presence. It must be the asking of your 
entire soul, and its only asking. 



40 Help from 

Do you wish to be alone ? Would 
you pollute sweet solitude with your 
sin ? Then the thought of Christ's pres- 
ence is displeasing to you. 

Do you still, while you fear your sin, 
longingly anticipate the scenes and 
comrades of debauch ? Then you will 
not long for Christ's companionship. 

While you clasp the darkness, you 
will never come into the presence 
of the light. 

And until you experience it, you must 
believe the report of its joy. You 
must listen to rescued sinners who cry to 
you out of its joy. You must grope 
toward it blindly, with what heart you 
can. You must believe, and ask Christ 
to help your unbelief. 

Your life, I say, must become an ask- 
ing. Only by prayer, varied and 
persevering prayer, is the Presence to be 
won. 

As you enter the night, whose holy 
silences are compelled to hide shud- 
deringly so many foul deeds, pray for 
the Presence. As you enter the day, 
which may become a star in your crown 
or a brand in your burning, pray for the 
Presence. As times or places or moods 
and occasions of temptation draw near, 
pray for the Presence. As you walk 
along the street, passing entrances to the 
pit, pray for the Presence. As you ap- 



Christ's Presence 41 

proach an hour of leisure, when your 
mind is free to work its evil will, pray 
for the Presence. Nay, at all seasons 
and in all chances, since it is when no 
one expects him that the devil comes, 
pray for the Presence. 

Somewhat thus, however disjointedly 
and stammeringly, so only your soul 
be in it, as an undertone through your 
day and when you awake in the night, 
pray for the Presence : — 

XorD 5esu9t wbo canet save me \>c^ 
cause C^bou wert tempteD fn all potnte a3 
H am, ^et wftbout ein^ come, come, come 
to me ! ir Dare not live wltbout c:bee» IT 
am tri^ln^ to live wttbout G:bee^ ^be spirit 
of evil witbin me persuades me ever awais 
trom ^bee* a:be law Dt sin anD Deatb bolDs 
6wa^ over me* JSut witb wbat ot mi^ 
beart 1F own, 11 cx'q to ^bee. Come, come, 
come! lpiti2 mi2 belplessness, anD come* 
TOIlbile ^bi5 justice condemns me» tbe 
forger ot mis own cbains, i^ct come, come ! 
^Mc ftinDcr tban m^ blinDeD praters, be 
truer tban m^ balt^sincere entreaties, be 
more switt, ob, more swift tban mis temp:s 
tations, and come, come, come ! ttalte tbis 
prater, tbis fragment of will anD rigbteous 
Desire, anD bless it anD increase it as ^bou 
bx^Qt bless anD magnifis tbe bit of breaD* 
telp me to bate mis ^ix^i now* f)elp me to 



42 Christ's Presence 

be a man, now* Melp me to remember 
bow brief is sinful pleasure, bow long 16 
pain. Sbow me C^bi^self, in Zh'Q compelU 
ing Qlori2» 1bear m^ neeD as a prater, anD 
come, come, come ! Ifn ?rb^ name, XorD 
5e6U0. :amen* 




Help from the Thought of Eternity 

HAT is the issue of life? 
Eternity. What is the ob- 
ject of Hfe ? To make char- 
acter for eternity. What is 
the reward or punishment of 
Hfe ? Character — for eternity. 

Do you ever dare think of yourself? 
Of what do you think, at that time ? 
Of your body — such a form and height, 
such a complexion, eyes and hair of such 
a color, garments such and such ? Of 
your attainments — so much Greek and 
mathematics, so much skill in carpentry 
or pie-making or law-making ? Of your 
possessions — this house and that, yonder 
bookcase, your gold watch, your dia- 
mond brooch, your bonds and mort- 
gages ? Do you think of these accidents, 
these bubbles that momently shine 
around yourself, or do you think of that 
self as it is ? 

As it is, solemn, mysterious, moment- 
ous. As it is, enduring while the 
earth endures, and more ; while the sun 
endures, and more ; while the universe 
and all universes endure, and more; 
while God endures. As it is, the one 

43 



44 Help from the 

significance among these shadows, the 
one substance among these shows. 

Is eternity a name to you ; or is it, and 
your portentous union with it, the 
apex of your dreaming, the throbbing 
undertone of all your hours ? 

For eternity is a chain, every link a 
century, which you may pay out till 
it girdles this great globe, and repeat it 
as many times as the globe has grains of 
dust, and you will scarcely have begun 
eternity. Your eternity. 

And eternity is a thought, stretching 
out as far as thought can reach, over 
countless abysms of time, and met by a 
relay of another thought, and that again 
by another, and another, and another, till 
the thoughts are as many as the stars in 
the sky ; and still not all of them will 
have made more than an entrance into 
eternity. Your eternity. 

And eternity is a snail, setting forth to 
crawl to Sirius, measuring a year 
with every length of its slow body, and 
returning thus from Sirius, and repeating 
the stupendous journey as many times as 
there are snails in the world, and yet not 
measuring a single span of eternity's in- 
finite reach. Your eternity. 

And eternity is an acorn, which be- 
comes an oak, which bears a million 
acorns, and each becomes an oak, to bear 



Thought of Eternity 45 

acorns each of them and those to pro- 
duce oaks, till all space has become a 
forest, and every singing leaf on every 
tree bears record of a different century, 
yet all together do not sum up an hour 
of eternity. Your eternity. 

So that the longest pain, the heaviest 
weight of woe, the most appalling 
difficulties with which your Ufe could be 
filled on earth, are lighter, more flitting, 
than a butterfly's wing, compared with 
the unimagined horror of a sad eternity. 

So that the maddest merriment, the 
keenest pleasure, with which a long 
life on earth could be packed, is only a 
baby's gurgle of laughter, compared with 
the sparkling, sunny reaches of a blissful 
eternity. 

And if it is true, or if there is only a 
chance of its being true, that char- 
acter here formed is formed forever, that 
some shall go away into this everlasting 
life and some into this everlasting death, 
what question overtops this question, 
what interest or what mass of interests 
matches this, what business, of all our 
myriad employments, is not baby's 
finger-play beside the making of char- 
acter ? 

And it is true. By every law of nature, 
definitely ordered, endlessly moving 
when once set in motion, you may know 
it true. By every observation of men, 



46 Help from the 

growing hardened in their sins and with 
each year less easily reclaimable, you 
may know it true. By every struggle 
with your sin, which rests the heavier 
upon you each day it is endured ; by 
every exertion of your conscience, 
weaker and weaker with each defeat, you 
may know it true. By the words of in- 
spiration, which tell us that now, while 
our hearts are not finally hardened, now 
is the day of salvation, — you may know 
it true. By the words of our divine 
Lord, who came out of that eternity to 
testify of it to us, whose lips, so willingly 
attuned to love and mercy, yet foretold a 
time when He must say, ** Depart, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire," — by His 
explicit, repeated teachings we may 
know it true, that character, here formed, 
is formed forever. 

Take heed lest you rebel against God's 
love and infinite wisdom. Take 
heed lest you complain, and think this 
Hfe too short for results so vast, so end- 
lessly momentous. Are you not glad 
that your eye is so delicate that a single 
< slip of the knife may blind you for a 
1 lifetime? And would you have your 
' soul less delicate? Are you not glad 
that you can fix your character in virtue, 
that you can anticipate a time when you 
need no longer watch your impulses, 
bridle your desires, fight your sins ; and 
can you imagine the possibility of virtue- 
fixation without the possibility of vice- 



rc'. Vyi 



xw^^ 



Thought of Eternity 47 

fixation? And have you any reason to 
think that a double trial or a quadruple 
would change the result? Is not God, 
who made the infant, best judge of how 
long the infant shall be forming its body 
into manhood, and shall He not best 
determine the maturity of the soul ? 

Be sure that infinite mercy will shine n.^ 
through infinite justice. Be sure 
that no feeblest desire for the good will 
ever be quenched of God. Be sure that 
no sorrow will rest upon a single soul 
that He can withhold. Be sure that all 
our decisions are made by ourselves, 
down to the final decision, hurried in no 
instant by God, darkened in no point by 
His anger, no allowance being refused 
that can be granted, and no opportunity 
being denied that can avail. Be sure 
that God, v/ho knows all the stretch of the 
future, can tell at this instant what you 
will make of yourself, — can tell it as 
thoroughly as if He had waited many 
eons. And be sure that He will permit 
you to make of yourself what you will. / 

Would you have it otherwise ? Would \ 
you have the Infinite Hands lay 
hold of you, wrench you away from evil, 
clamp you forcibly to virtue, fasten you 
to a derrick and swing you into heaven 
like a log of wood or a piece of stone ? 
Then you would cease to be a man, you 
would become wood and stone, and all 



48 Help from the 

the significance of soul would have gone 
from you. 

Do not rebel at the thought of eternal 
torture. Our Father tortures no 
man. The torture of hell is self-con- 
ceived, self-inflicted. Would you pre- 
fer the annihilation of the wicked? 
Do not allow your fancies to play with 
such a theme. It is not for human pref- 
erence to toss the issues of eternity. 
Only be sure that the eternity is our 
Father's, and that even hell will be 
ordered as is best. 

But oh, brother, brother, dare you think 
of eternity ? Can you face that end- 
less prospect undismayed ? Whither are 
you tending ? Are you sure ? Fear- 
fully sure or blessedly sure? 

When next you are tempted to sin, 
think of the endless life. Nay, 
think of it before the temptation is on, 
that your will may be tense and your 
heart armed against it. 

What is a moment's gratification of an 
appetite, matched with the endless 
years ? What is the stress of the com- 
bat, though you labor nigh to death 
fighting against sin, when you think of 
the prize before you ? Will you be in- 
sane? Will you be infantile? Will you 
barter eternity for a mouthful of sugared 
arsenic ? 



Thought of Eternity 49 

It is easy, after sinning, in remorse and 
fear to think these thoughts. But the 
victory Hes in thinking them at sin's ap- 
proach. Safety hes in weaving them 
with the substance of your mind so that 
they become instinctive, so that you hve 
no longer under the power of sin, but in 
the power of the endless years. 

You cannot do this without meditation 
upon eternity, long communion with 
the thought, guided by the Bible, which 
is eternity's Handbook. 

Refer everything to the standard of 
eternity. Ask of this pleasure, *' Is 
its joy a part of the eternal joy ? " Ask 
of this labor, '' Is it a task that can be 
continued in a happy eternity ? " Ask 
of these words, " Are they consonant 
with the language of heaven ? '* Ask of 
those thoughts and emotions, " Would I 
have them repeated endlessly through 
the ages?" 

And whatever is doubtful under this 
test, though it were a hand, cut it 
off, and though it were an eye, pluck it 
out. That is no maiming which moves 
you toward a happy eternity, that is no 
loss which turns the scale by a hair's 
breadth toward eternal happiness. 

And do not think to effect an iota of 
this by yourself. Only the eternal 
Christ can win eternity for you. Only 
the Conqueror of time can tear you from 



so Eternity 

the moment's debauch into the ceaseless 
joy. Only the Everliving can set your 
feet in the way of hfe. 

So to the Eternal Christ, who was in 
the beginning and ever will be, hft 
daily and hourly this petition : — 

iBvcxldiBtingf Bnctent ot Da^6, ^bou 
Blpba anD ©mega, G^bou cea6ele06li2 
isoung anD strong ant) beautltult save me, 
Ob, save me into tbe eternal lite ! (Sluicl^en 
mi2 conscience, buttress m^ will, tbat If 
mai5 tear out tbe grappling books of Deatb, 
anD rise Into tbe eternal lite ! ase wltb m^ 
tbougbts, rebuke corruption in tbem, cons= 
firm wbat Is Imperlsbable, anD Ux tbem on 
eternal lite ! 3Bc wltb m^ ambitions, annul 
tbe transltoris ant) trivial, Direct tbe tore=» 
seeing, tbe ensuring, anD conduct tbem 
towarD eternal lite! ase wltb tbls veri^ 
moment, come to m^ alD against tempta^* 
tlon, pour tbrougb m^ veins tbe courage of 
enMess ^ears, make tbls moment ^blne, a 
part of eternal life ! If praise ^bee for tbe 
gift of Immortality^* <S)b, renDer me wortbis 
of It ! Mrap me In XLb>Q wortb as a gar:* 
ment, anD place Its crown upon m^ beat)* 
mot because 1F merit it, or am in an^ wai2 
otber tban undeserving of it, but because 
it is tbe merit of 5esus ant) 1bls loving De* 
sire for me, 11 ask it in Ibis blesseD name» 
Bmen* 



VI 

Help from Mortification 




ANY things must die, that 
other things may Hve. The 
lower must decrease, that the 
higher may increase. Ground 
that is rank with sunflowers 
will not bear roses. Souls that are ab- 
sorbed in the carnal will never exult in 
the spiritual. 

The denial of eternal life is never ap- 
parent denial ; it is the engrossing 
acceptance of something else. 

Of something else, whatever it may be, 
evil, or only lesser good. It may 
be some passion of the pit, it may be 
some selfish-exalted study, — though lust 
is near to hell and good books are near 
to heaven, they equally keep one from 
God if they are chosen in place of Him. 

For ours is a jealous God. We bless 
Thee, our Father, that Thou art a 
jealous God. Thou art not complacent 
toward Thy children's undoing. Thou 
wilt have nothing but their best and hap- 
piest. 

ur lives are like stairways to heaven, 
and some stop on the lowest steps, 
51 



o 



52 Help from 

and some are proud that they stop on the 
highest, but there is only misery for those 
that stop at all. 

God knows this. Therefore He bids 
us mortify — put to death — our 
lower nature, crucify the flesh, keep the 
body under, wrestle with and throttle, as 
in a life-and-death struggle, whatever 
prevents our full surrender to Him. 

This mortification of our lower nature, 
this putting it to death, is the sin- 
ner's bold assault of temptation, without 
waiting for it to assail him. 

What possession of the spirit is more 
precious than a will inflexibly 
righteous ? Through all thickets of iniq- 
uity it cleaves its way, it parts all bar- 
riers of temptation, it turns to rout the 
most determined onset of evil. When 
you sin, it is not because sin is strong, 
but because your will is weak. 

What task, then, is better worth achiev- 
ing than to strengthen your will ? 
What labor, what self-denial, what pa- 
tience and persistence, are not well spent 
for such a prize ? 

For days the athlete will deny his de- 
sires, eat w^hat he httle likes, drink 
what is poorly pleasing, agonize in stren- 
uous toil, solely to enlarge and harden a 
few inches of muscle, and cut a few sec- 
onds from a record. The scholar will 



Morfiftcation 53 

outlast the night with his studies, and 
twenty years of nights, and wear his 
body into the grave, all that a new beetle 
may be named. The worldly ambitious 
will scant their slumber to the uttermost, 
scorn the least amusement, place them- 
selves upon the rack of popular debate 
and hug the rack, lavish long decades in 
relentless pursuit — of what ? Of a name 
written on a banner, and raised where the 
winds will tear it to tatters in a month. 
The miser will starve himself for one 
more hoarding, the lover will fight fire 
and wave and tempest for his love, the 
mother will spend herself, to her last drop 
of blood and quiver of nerve, for her baby. 
The world is full of mortifyings, of put- 
tings to death, denying the less or what 
is thought the less, for the greater or 
what is deemed the greater. 

And when the goal is the greatest and 
best, your will, your character, your 
eternal destiny, the happiness of those 
you love, the welfare of the world so far 
as you can bless it, — when all this is at 
stake, when this your all is at stake, how 
determined should be your striving, how 
stern your self-denial, how exultant your 
sacrifices ! 

But no ; alas, no ! For an hour's riot, 
for a moment's thrill, for a pulse of 
passion, for a whiff of excitement, for a 
bubble blown of poison, we sell our 
souls ! 



54 Help from 

Brother, there is no need to paint this 
madness. You know it. With all 
bitterness and horror you deplore it. 
But the madness has fixed itself upon 
you and you cannot shake it off. You 
are a madman. 

Yes, a madman. When the frenzy of 
evil is on, it sweeps over your being 
like the hot simoon, it shrivels your holi- 
est ideals, it mocks your firmest resolu- 
tions, it lays bare to passion your very 
heart. You curse it, you weep, you 
pray, or think you pray, — and you seek 
it yet again. Wretched man that you 
are, bound to that body of death ! 

Control the frenzy of evil ? As readily 
grasp the lightning ! Mortify your 
passions when they are aroused ? As 
readily put to death the spectre of the 
plague, when it stalks over the land ! 

No. The plague is to be conquered 
before it comes to being. Passions 
are to be prevented and not controlled. 
The body is to be crucified before it gets 
a spirit — your spirit. 

Satan's stronghold is in what is not 
wrong. It is in our subservience to 
things that '' do not matter." It is in our 
failure to practise mastership in non- 
essentials. 

If your horse is always allowed to have 
his will when he ambles, he will have 



Mortification ^^ 

his will when he runs away. If your 
rifle is rusty in the barracks, it will be 
rusty on the sudden call to arms. If you 
play carelessly in your practice, you will 
fail in the concert. 

Gladstone was observed one day set- 
ting out for a ten-mile walk in a 
heavy storm, and was asked the reason. 
** Solely because," answered the great 
man, " I had formed the intention to 
walk before the storm came up, and I 
must maintain the habit of carrying out 
my intentions." 

Nothing is trivial that bears relation to 
the will. It is in small matters that 
it must be trained, for the stress of great 
affairs leaves no time for training. If it 
is not exercised upon what does not 
tempt, it will falter and fail before temp- 
tation. 

Be not hasty to form resolutions, but 
when they are formed, be inflexible. 
It is of Httle consequence whether you 
write that letter or sit idle for half an 
hour; but that you form the habit of 
mastering sloth is of infinite consequence. 
It is of little consequence whether you 
eat one piece of cake more than you 
should, or drink an unnecessary glass of 
soda-water ; but unless you are temperate 
in trifles you will never be temperate at 
all. 



56 Help from 

Cultivate decisiveness. In ordering 
lunch at a restaurant, make quick 
choice and hold to your choice. In se- 
lecting your garments for the day, do not 
tediously balance this and that, rejecting, 
accepting, and then returning to what 
you have rejected. Better make a few 
mistakes in trifles than make the great 
mistake of weakness. 

If you never deny yourself when it does 
not count, you will never deny your- 
self when it does count. You have a 
horse, and drive him constantly over the 
right road ; now he will find it even in 
the stormy midnight. You have a will, 
and accustom it by pleasant daylight to 
a w^ay ; your will will then travel it in- 
stinctively when the black storm of pas- 
sion has torn the reins from your hands. 

Keep the body under. Grind your 
carnal appetites even with unde- 
served scorn beneath your heel. With 
fierceness, with a passion equal to their 
own, force upon them the habit of servi- 
tude. Either you or they must rule. 
Leave no doubt which it is. 

Leave no doubt, for the passions are 
crafty. Under the cloak of submis- 
sion they carry still heavier chains for 
you. " See how strong you are ! " they 
cry. ** See how well you control us ! 
You are tormenting yourself needlessly. 
You have proved that you can indulge 
moderately with safety. See how close 



Mortification 57 

you can come to sin, and not actually 
transgress. For your hand is steady, 
your will is firm." 

Perceive in these suggestions the very 
horns of the evil one. Meet them 
with some energy of mortification, some 
rush of self-denial. When the foul- 
minded Roman king would reduce his 
son to his own level of vileness, he bound 
him and exposed him thus to the temp- 
tation of a harlot. The prince bit off his 
own tongue and spat it in her face. 
Does this horrible story over-illustrate 
the fury with which we must repel every 
solicitation of uncleanness ? 

We have discarded the follies of asceti- 
cism ; for asceticism, contrived to 
conquer passion, became itself a lust and 
an intemperance. But let us not discard 
the virtues and power of asceticism, the 
life of discipHne, of endurance, and of 
conquest. 

Learn to live simply. Where a fort is 
to be defended, they cut away the 
trees. Often our lives are so ensconced 
in luxuries that Satan's levies can creep 
among the foliage unperceived, nearer 
and nearer, until they surprise the gar- 
rison of the soul. 

Learn to do without. It is no virtue to 
fast, but it is a prudence. Be very 
jealous of your spiritual sovereignty. If 
you but dimly suspect that this practice 



58 Help from 

or that pleasure is undermining the su- 
premacy of your will, try issues with it 
at once. Banish it, and keep it in exile 
till your authority is assured. 

And count it no hardship when you 
thus break with inclination. Feel 
rather the stern delight of the warrior as 
he sleeps upon the ground. 

For decades William Taylor, heroic 
missionary bishop, carried with him 
a stone in a satchel, and at night he used 
it for his pillow. Some such stone you 
must get for your living, and you must 
lie on it as Jacob lay on that at Bethel, 
until like Jacob you can set it up as 
memorial of the opened heavens. 

All this is easy to say, but oh, so hard 
to do ! You cannot do it. Christ 
alone can do it, in you. Only through 
the power of the cross can you crucify 
the flesh. Only through the nail -pierced 
hands and feet can you mortify your 
members. Only by grace of Him who 
rose on high can you keep the body 
under. 

To Him, then, to the Victor, the Vic- 
tory-bringer, address your continual 
prayer : — 

Saviour, bol^ Saviour, tbere I0 no wa^ 
ot 0elt:sDenlal tbat ^bou baet not wal?^eD. 
C:bou DlDst 0lvc up, not one tblng, but all 
tbiwQQ. ^bou dlDst perfectly subDue tbe 



Mortification 59 

fleeb* Hbou Do6t linow tbe Getbeemane 
agon^ ot it, but still ^bou Doet invite me to 
^bis patb. Crusting in a:bee tor etrengtb, 
1[ enter it, XorD 5e6U6! 11 will see!^ first 
XTb^ T^in^Dom anD Cb^ rigbteousness^ IT 
will set m^ attections on tbings above^ 
/IR15 meat anD Drink eball be to Do Zh>Q 
wilL lit mi2 eise is Darkness, H will pluck 
It out* Hf mi2 banD is iniquity, 11 will cut 
It ott* IF will torget tbat all gooD tbings 
sball be aDDeD to tbe seekers tor XTb^ 
kingDom* IT will seek it tor tbe kingDom's 
sake, anD tbe Iking's* Bll tbings sball be 
loss to me, tor tbe gloria ot Zh'Q name^ 
mbat is a worlD ot pleasure, besiDe G:b^ 
brietest smile? umbat is mis will tor a 
litetime, besiDe eternity witb Cbee 7 Mbat 
cross, tbougb one bis one m^ Desires were 
stretcbeD upon it, but is an ungruDgeD as^ 
cent to c:bee, G^bou crucifieD Xigbt anD 
Xite7 Mitb all or witbout all, be G:bou 
ms BlUius^all, torever* amen» 




VII 

Help from Widened Interests 

BROAD view of life has come 
to signify a sane view of it. 
The Christian is to walk in a 
narrow way, but that narrow 
way is to lead into all the 
world. He is to come out from the evil 
and be separate from it, and yet he is 
to be all things to all men. 

It is in the lanes and alleys that you find 
the refuse, while the highways are 
carefully swept ; and so it is among the 
crowded interests of men that you will 
lose your soul's impurities, and will meet 
fewer temptations. 

It is never good for a man to withdraw 
into solitude unless he is sure that 
God goes thither with him. It is in the 
wilderness that God Himself was tempted, 
being in the form of a man. Crowds 
bring a thousand distractions from virtue, 
but also a thousand distractions from sin. 

And those that dally with temptation 
make even in the midst of crowds a 
solitude for their souls. For where the 
interest is withdrawn from the clean pur- 
suits of men, and fixed, self-centred, upon 

60 



Widened Interests 61 

some wickedness, there is solitude and 
there is a wilderness, though the man 
fight daily in the clamor of a stock-ex- 
change, or march in the midst of an 
army. 

Sin is so near akin to selfishness that 
one is always close to sin when his 
soul is much alone, and always happily 
distant from sin when his soul is worthily 
at work for others. Permit yourself only 
so much study of yourself as to recog- 
nize the truth of this. Perceive, O 
tempted soul, that the tempting fiend is 
bashful. Two is company with him, and 
three is a crowd, when the third is any 
honest toiler. 

Many temptations, to be sure, come in 
crowds, — such as the revelry of 
drunkenness, when one plays the fool 
because another has just played it. But 
even these temptations are born of soli- 
tary brooding, of gloating in secret over 
the fallacious joys of debauchery ; and 
if even a debauchee will wisely use the 
time when his fellow-fools are not with 
him, he will play the fool with them no 
longer. 

Whittier, whose illustrious life was 
crystal testimony to his words, 
once told a young man that the way to 
success lies in attaching one's self in 
youth to some great, unpopular cause, 
and growing up into victory with it 



62 Help from 

Such also is the road to purity, — attach 
yourself to some great, pure, absorbing 
interest. 

This interest may well be the cause of 
human freedom ; for many, still, are 
the slaves. Slaves of rum, slaves of lust, 
slaves of greed, slaves of ambition, slaves 
of vanity, slaves of fashion, slaves of 
poverty, slaves of ignorance, slaves of 
superstition, slaves of pride ! Join with 
the preacher, the missionary, the re- 
former, the teacher, the philanthropist ! 

Let not these great names appall you. 
No one is rightly living his life — no 
one, man, woman, or child — unless he is, 
so far as he has power to be, a preacher, 
a missionary, a reformer, a teacher, and 
a philanthropist ! 

Unless, so far as in you lies, you, Chris- 
tian, are teaching the truth of God 
at home and abroad, and correcting what 
is evil and furthering what is good,^ — 
what do ye more than others ? 

The worldling is a man of the centre ; 
the Christian is a man of the cir- 
cumference. At that centre lurks the 
spider, sin. 

Widen your interests, my brother, if 
you would flee the devil. I do 
not mean a diffused life ; concentrate all 
you please, but concentrate upon the 
large concerns of the Kingdom. 



Widened Interests 63 

Consider the healthfulness that flows 
from the single interest of missions, 
— the outlook over all the world, the in- 
sight into men and customs, the ac- 
quaintance with history, the knowledge 
of exalted biography, the development 
of the practical and the ideal, the en- 
largement of sympathies, the deepening 
of brotherhood, the increase of gener- 
osity, the verification of faith, the sense 
of comradeship with God ! 

In proportion as this great, clean inter- 
est, so multiform, so manly, so fasci- 
nating, takes possession of a life, its un- 
cleannesses are driven out. What room 
is there for them any longer? It is a 
fresh, sweet broom of many fibres, sweep- 
ing the hidden corners of the soul. 

Who can consort daily with Henry 
Martyn and be licentious ? with 
Allen Gardiner and be a drunkard ? with 
Paton and be a miser ? with Livingstone 
and be an egotist ? with Patteson and be 
a glutton ? 

Who can feel the woes of the women 
of India, the oppressed of Turkey, 
the slave of Africa, the priest-bound of 
Peru, the superstition-fettered Chinese, 
the miseries of poverty, ignorance, and 
heathenism in our own land, and not 
take shame to spend on his lusts a cent 
of money or a pulse of power ? 



64 Help from 

1am needed for the world ! This is a 
truth that will cleanse rne and keep me 
clean. I am needed, every coin, every 
minute, every thought, every shred of 
talent, every atom of strength ! 

No one is taking my place; few are 
taking their own. No one, though 
all the world besides were at this work, 
could take my place. 

Such a feeling of responsibility for 
others purifies like the outward- 
rushing fire. The feeling is to be gained 
from other work than missions. The 
temperance reform will give it ; so will 
civic reforms ; so will work with young 
people in Sunday school and young 
people's society ; so will labor for the 
poor ; so will toil for the sick ; so will 
prison ministries ; so will city missions ; 
so will the activities of King's Daughters, 
Lend-a-Hand Clubs, Brotherhoods of 
Andrew and Philip, and a thousand other 
Christly fraternities. 

But remember, the healing is from 
within, not from without. It is not 
in what the hand does, though it sign a 
dozen constitutions, carry flowers to the 
sick, carry good reading to the prisons, 
carry food to the poor. It is in what the 
mind does. 

When men wish to cleanse a swamp, 
they have but one problem : to get 
the water to running out. So when you 



Widened Interests 65 

would purify your mind, there is only 
one problem : to set its interests to flow- 
ing outward. 

They may turn the swamp down hill 
by under drainage ; they may turn 
a hill upon the swamp by pouring a 
river in ; they may lift the swamp into 
the clouds by cutting down the tree-bar- 
riers that shut out the sun. There are 
many ways of cleaning a swamp, and a 
mind ; but they all tend outward, they 
all transform the swamp from centre-life 
to circumference-hfe. 

Do not say that you are incapable of 
large interests, of widened thinking, 
that yours is a little mind. The smallest 
swamp may breed as poisonous malaria 
as the largest one ; but also, the smallest 
stream may become a part of the great- 
est river. I am not urging you to great- 
ness, but that you ally yourself with it. 

And yet there is no surer way for even 
a small mind to become great than 
by concerning itself with great interests, 
and there is no surer way for even a 
great mind to become small than by at- 
taching itself to pettiness. 

Begin — anywhere and any way ! Take 
up some book on missions, on phi- 
lanthropy, on reform, on any aggressive 
Christian work, read it, and it will be 
your guide to other books and those to 
others. Do something to help others, — 



66 Help from 

something, anything ; that deed will be 
your guide to something else you can 
do, and that to something else. Find 
some one who is an outgoing Christian, 
— some one, any one, an individual or a 
society, and do something in that com- 
panionship ; it will open up other associ- 
ations, till you are in touch with the 
army, and feel the thrill of countless 
elbows. 

I have not spoken about the mental 
widening that comes from a delightful 
study, such as some line of history, sci- 
ence, language, or literature, or some 
charming pursuit, such as photography, 
or some enriching amusement, such as 
chess or tennis. I have felt that the 
swamp is very deep and foul, and that 
these streams, running level with time, 
are rather weak to cleanse it. I would 
turn into the swamp the impetuous cur- 
rents of the eternal hills. 

Live in the greatest things you know ! 
Soon you will cease to know the 
belittling things. 

Be proud to make the humblest begin- 
ning of a great matter rather than 
the most complacent achievement of a 
trifling one. 

Stride abroad with Jehovah ! At first 
you must toddle like a babe at His 
side, but He will soon get you to walk- 
ing like a man. 



Widened Interests 67 



A 



nd so make this your true petition to 
your Father in heaven : — 



/llba?ier anD dontroUer ot all tblngs, tafte 
me out wttb O^bee into ^b^ vast borlsona ! 
IRaneom me trom tbl0 prlsotit wbose walla 
are creeping ever fn upon me* Sbow me 
tbe sweep ot ^b^ provlDences, tbe majesty 
of G:b^ scope* IReDeem me trom selt^love* 
Enrlcb me wttb selts^sacrlfice* jflre me 
wttb boli2 ambition* Set mis teet in a large 
room* 1F will no longer Dwart m^ soul 
witb sin* fl will reacb tortb to manlis 
tbougbts anD manlis tasks* 11 will reverse 
tbe currents ot m^ interests* 11 will seek 
otbers' gratification^ otbers' welfare* Hn 
lowlis imitation of m^ jfatber, in prouD anD 
bappis imitation of Ibim, IT also will become 
interesteD in all tbings, anD belpful* Ht 
will be because XTbou Oost Dwell in me, 
Xover of all ! BnD it will be in Cbrist's 
name an& for Ibis safee* Hmen^ 



VIII 

Help from a Vigorous Body 




HERE are some things that 
the devil hates worse than 
good health, but not many 
things. 



If you have constant headaches, tooth- 
aches, backaches, ey caches, if you are 
always morbidly tired and never happily 
tired, if your digestion goes wrong and 
your circulation is poor and your Hver 
out of order, Satan has a holiday so far 
as you are concerned. Why tempt a 
man who carries a battery of temptations 
around with him ? 

There have been saints in spite of 
wretched bodies, saints like Henry 
Marty n, Robert Hall, EHzabeth Brown- 
ing ; but it was in spite of their bodies, 
and in sore despite. 

It is often said that avoidable sickness is 
a sin. It is a sin, and the herald of 
twenty more. 

Watch yourself and your sins. Do 
you not most often fall when your 
physical stamina has fallen first ? 

68 



A Vigorous Body 69 



E 



very muscle, when it is not flabby, is 
a stout barrier against sin. Every 
nerve, when it is steady, is a steel net- 
work behind which you are safe. Every 
organ, when it is not in rebellion, is a 
trooper on guard against iniquity. 

But when the brain is fagged out and 
the body anaemic, when the heart 
beats weariedly and the lungs are clogged, 
when the stomach groans at its impossi- 
ble task and the nerves and muscles lie 
inert and despairing, then bestial tempta- 
tions come mockingly in, altogether un- 
opposed. 

What resolution can be upheld by a 
body so near to unholy dissolu- 
tion ? What spiritual grace can be main- 
tained by those that disgrace their phys- 
ical natures ? Who can fight Satan and 
dyspepsia at the same time? Surely 
none but a spiritual giant. 

You have struggled against sin long 
enough to know how fierce is the 
combat, how feeble are your resources at 
the best, how desperately you need them 
to be at their best. Where all are sorely 
inadequate, — body, mind, soul, — do you 
not see what folly it is to permit one to 
relax ? 

** Out is not God my Helper ? " you may 
D ask. ** Is He not Spirit, and om- 
nipotent? Can He need my wretched 



70 Help from 

body for a weapon or a tool? Has He 
not bidden me not to trust in an arm of 
flesh ? " 

Ah, brother, God's Word declares that 
of this omnipotent Spirit the very- 
temple is — man's body. Not only the 
temple, but the workshop, the arsenal, 
the fort. You are to trust no arm of 
flesh, but you are to trust God's arm — 
in an arm of flesh. 

Does not the very word, superm.t\xrdi\f 
presuppose the natural ? Will you 
remove the natural from under the super- 
natural? Why, the church. Christians, 
you and I, make up the body of Christ, 
the only body He now has on earth. It 
is through our eyes He must see ; shall 
we not keep them clear ? through our 
muscles He must work ; shall we not 
preserve them strong ? 

Revere your body. Revere it as God's 
handiwork, the marvelous climax of 
creation, since not in the melodious 
mazes of the universe is there a harmony 
so wondrously attuned as here. Revere 
it as God's abiding-place, His church 
where all other churches fail. 

Revere it in deeds, not sentiment alone. 
Warm it — with good food. Venti- 
late it — with fresh air. Cleanse it — with 
hearty exercise. Treat it at least as well 
as a church of brick and mortar. 



a Vigorous Body 71 

Temptations assail you, brother ? 
Knock them down with dumb-bells 
or Indian clubs ! Run away from them 
on the bicycle — they can never keep up ! 
Nay, walk away from them, and if you 
foot it briskly, over hill and dale, you 
will find the club-footed fiend a poor 
pedestrian ! 

Or rather, do not wait till temptations 
assail you. Provide a vigorous body 
against their coming. They will see its 
glittering towers from afar, and slink 
back into their dens. 

Is a bit of ground open to your tillage ? 
Learn what virtue dwells in a lawn- 
mower, a hoe, a rake, a spade, a wheel- 
barrow ! You'll keep your soul clean, 
I'll warrant, if you get your hands thus 
dirty ! 

Do you or can you own a work-bench 
and a box of tools ? Discover how 
much of Jesus' victory in His tempta- 
tions sprung from the sturdy carpenter 
life that preceded ! 

et it not be aimless toil, whatever you 
do (though health is aim enough), 
for interest flags without a concrete goal. 
On your bicycle — go somewhere. With 
your Indian clubs — swing toward a defi- 
nite arm-girth. On your plot of ground 
— raise a crop. With your tools— fur- 
nish the house. 



L 



72 Help from 

It is good never to go to bed until you 
can lay there a tired body. Often 
you think your body is tired when you 
are only worried, and your brain-tire 
would vanish if your body could be tired. 
Bring it about, though you must go out 
and race for two miles in the dark. 

A tired body, so tired that slumber 
comes quickly, irresistibly, dream- 
lessly, is a glorious ally of purity and 
power. Such sleep is the best of exor- 
cisms against the devil. 

Some will need to be warned against 
becoming too tired, overwearied, so 
that they cannot sleep. That is also the 
devil's chance. Any excess is his chance. 

But of those that are continually 
tempted to sin and as continually 
fall, by far the greater part lead flabby 
lives. Their physical stamina is down at 
the heel, and so is their spiritual stamina. 
Their gait is languid, and so is their 
Christian '* walk." Their bearing is 
slouched, nor do their souls bear them- 
selves uprightly. 

Not only do men set their teeth and 
clinch their fists when they are de- 
termined ; set teeth and clinched hands 
make them more determined. Not only 
do men lift their heads and straighten 
their shoulders when they are alert and 
hopeful, but a brisk bearing renders 
them more alert and hopeful, as any one 
may prove if he will. 



a Vigorous Body 73 

I do not believe that even the Bread of 
Life can nourish a soul while the body 
in which the soul lives is fed with fried 
potatoes, strong tea, mince-pie, and 
brandy. 

I do not believe that any spirit can 
sleep the sleep of the just while the 
accompanying body is paying the pen- 
alty of insomnia for dietetic sins. 

I do not believe that any man can be 
strong in the Lord and in the power 
of His might while he is deliberately or 
carelessly weakening his body. 

I do not believe that any one can lay 
up many treasures in heaven while he 
is squandering on earth the God-given 
treasure of health. 

I think it likely that many who read 
these lines may be moved to take a 
few walks, or buy a pair of dumb-bells, 
or join a gymnasium, or clean up their 
bicycles. I think it more than likely 
that the most of these many will take 
only three walks, forget their dumb-bells 
after the third morning, attend the gym- 
nasium only three weeks, and ride their 
bicycles no more than three miles ! 

Health is a harvest. It must be worked 
for. The seeds must be sown, and 
carefully tended. There must be per- 
sistence in the tilling and patience in the 
waiting and vigor in the gathering. 



74 Help from 

A stout body must be planned for. It 
does not come at haphazard, — a 
game to-day, rowing to-morrow, next 
week an hour in the garden, then a fit of 
the home exerciser. You would not 
make money that way, nor can you make 
muscle. 

Enter upon the work with system and 
intelligence and purpose. Get some 
good book on health (and none is better, 
for sprightly sense, than Blaikie's '* How 
to Get Strong/' published by Harper's). 
Adopt a regimen, chosen after careful 
experimentation upon yourself. Having 
adopted it, pursue it, though the heavens 
fall. 

If it is walking, walk, though the devil 
send a tornado. If it is Indian clubs, 
swing, though the devil push the ther- 
mometer to one hundred. If it is gar- 
dening, garden, though the devil hurl at 
you a thousand mosquitoes. 

Do not hold health a secondary matter, 
subordinate to business, subordinate 
to pleasure. Business and pleasure are 
at its mercy in the long run, and so is a 
higher than either. 

our body is a temple of the Holy 
Ghost. Return ever to the one great 
argument. In proportion as you honor 
the Spirit of the Living God, you will 
come to honor His living temple. 



Y 



a Vigorous Body 75 

Build high its walls of health ! Let 
them glisten white with purity! 
Cement them with firmness of will ! 
Found them on obedience to law ! 
Adorn them with the carvings of enjoy- 
ment ! Crown them with the pinnacles 
of a holy ambition ! 

And ever, in your work for the body, 
pray thus to the God who formed 
it:— 

Ifnfinite anD Ibol^t tor wbom tbe untveree 
10 a \)o^^, ^blne arm tbe outreacb oX graves 
it^t ^b^ teet tbe ltc5bt, Zb^ brain tbe 
etber! JSoDlee innumerable ITbou baet 
createD anD ^bou Doet upbolD* ^o man 
alone ^bou baet cjiven cbarc^e ot a \)0^>q. 
Ob, solemn auD Glorious Dicjnit^ ! 11 woulD 
be wortbi^ ot it. IT seeh ^bi2 minD, to 
ciuiDe me» Z\)^ miuD, to wbicb tbe care 
ot an infinity ot boDies is no tas?;, ^rant me 
a portion ot it, lovincj jfatber, tor m^ own 
beav^ tas!; ! 1belp me to clear vision, to 
steaO)? purpose, to invincible purity. Cons' 
tilrm m^ ri^bteous will anD scatter m^ 
temptations^ Dwell increasingly witbin 
me, anD as a:bou Dwellest, transtorm* 
3for Jesus' safte* Bmen^ 



IX 

Help from Hell 




hell! 



ELP from hell ! Is anything but 
hindrance in that thought? 
Should I not rather have writ- 
ten, Help from heaven ? Yes, 
that also ; but still, Help from 



For the fear of the Lord is the be- 
ginning of wisdom, though the love 
of the Lord is its continuance. If we 
feared hell more, we should sin less. If 
we loved heaven more, we should the 
less desert righteousness. 

If the thought of heaven were more 
helpful than the thought of hell, 
Christ, the great Helper, would have 
spoken more of heaven than of hell. 

What did He, the loving, the merci- 
ful, mean when He said, " These 
shall go away into eternal punishment : 
but the righteous into eternal life " ? 
He that is our only Testimony to eter- 
nity, shall we receive the pleasing half 
and reject the terrible half? Shall we 
presume to fancy an eternal heaven and 
a transient hell? Shall a man, forsooth, 
be more loving-wise than Christ ? 

76 



Help from Hell 77 

What did He, the gentle, the lowly, 
mean when He said, '' Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels " ? 
What did He mean by the " wailing and 
gnashing of teeth," '' where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched " ? 
What did He, the Light of the world, 
mean by '* the outer darkness " ? What 
did He, the Saviour of all, mean when 
He threatened, '' Except ye repent, ye 
shall all hkewise perish " ? What did 
He, the meek, the humble, mean when 
He cried, '' Ye serpents, ye generation 
of vipers, how can ye escape the damna- 
tion of hell ? " What did He, who came 
to reconcile the world to His Father, 
mean by the '* great gulf fixed," and 
Dives on the other side in " a place of 
torment," the scribes and Pharisees 
'* thrust out," the wicked '' severed from 
among the just," the sheep to the right 
and the goats to the left, the fruitless 
tree, the tares, cut down, gathered, and 
cast into the fire ? What did He mean 
by all this, and much more? 

There are some things He did not 
mean. He did not mean that God 
sends any soul to hell ; the wicked merely 
go to their own place. He did not mean 
that God torments any soul in hell ; the 
fire of hell is kindled by the wicked and 
kept alive by their wickedness. He did 
not mean that God delights in hell ; how 



78 Help from 

God grieves over it — that grief is the 
Incarnation ! 

But there are some things that, with all 
the infinite truth and love and maj- 
esty of His divine nature, He did mean 
by this teaching. 

That God has founded His universe 
upon justice, and will not, cannot, 
bless the unrighteous. 

That God has established His heaven 
in consistency, and will not, cannot, 
admit to it the unheavenly. 

That God is essential good, and to 
choose God is endless joy. That 
away from God there is no good, and to 
reject God is endless woe. 

That it is possible to accept God with 
an eternal acceptance and reject God 
with an eternal rejection. 

Oh, dark and awful certainty of hell! 
Sure as the radiance of heaven is 
thy gloom. Sure as the love of Christ 
are thy torments. Immutable as the 
permanence of eternal life is eternal 
death. 

Where is the helpfulness of this 
thought ? Shall we not rather run 
from it, as so many do, and hide our 
heads from it, though only in the sand ? 
Shall we not deny it, though at the cost 
of denying Christ? 



Helt 79 

It is helpful as the danger sign is help- 
ful, warning us away from bog, or 
thin ice, or pestilential house. It is 
helpful as bitter herbs, that also are 
medicinal. It is helpful as a lightning 
flash, that shows at our feet a precipice. 

For God wills that all men everywhere 
should repent. Could God have His 
way, still permitting us to be men, hell 
would to-day be empty, and every soul 
of the dead be happy in His heaven. 
The revelation of hell is a revelation of 
God's anxiety for His children, a revela- 
tion not of God's hatred, but His love. 

Oh, what wretches then we are, know- 
ing all this, still cleaving to our 
sin ! Oh, what fools we are, seeing all 
this, ever shutting our eyes against it ! 
Oh, what madmen we are, hearing the 
warnings, yet choosing the way of death ! 

Let us say no longer, with silly, com- 
placent doubt, '' If there be a hell." 
Let us no longer, in fatuous security, re- 
fuse to consider hell. Let us no longer, 
as the hypocrites do, think of the wicked 
there, but of ourselves as good. 

It is well to meditate on hell. Not in 
gloom and morbidness, not in fearful 
despair, but with clear eyes and steady 
heart to look, if we are Christ's, at the 
pit whence we have been dug ; and if we 
are not Christ's but are yet in our sins, 



8o Help from 

that we may realize, before it is too late, 
whither those sins are hurhng us. 

To be '' without," " in the outer dark- 
ness," "severed," and forever! To 
look across the great gulf, and see be- 
yond it the lights of home, from which 
we are eternal exiles. To see our dear 
ones there. To see there the loving, 
serving, glorious Christ. To see blessed 
companionship there. To see all loveU- 
ness there. To catch the last wave of 
their songs, the final hint of their fra- 
grance. And to know around one's self 
only blackness and loneliness and death. 
And after all not to care, but with a tor- 
ment of passion to love darkness rather 
than light, and death rather than life, for- 
ever ! That is hell. 

Were there only a possibility of it, in- 
stead of the truth it is, would it not 
be worth the toil of a lifetime to escape 
it and help others to escape it ? 

Be a man, be a man, be a man ! That 
is no place for you. It was not pre- 
pared for you, but for the devil and his 
angels. 

Be a man, be a man, be a man ! Resist 
the devil, and he will flee from you. 
You will not be tempted above what you 
are able to resist. 



B 



e a man, be a man, be a man ! Bid 
Satan behind you. Have done with 



Helt 81 

him and his. Be your own master, and 
a slave no longer. 

" A las," you cry, '' I have tried to be a 
-r\ man, but I am no man. I have 
longed for mastery, but my serfdom set- 
tles the heavier upon me. I have com- 
manded the devil behind me, but he will 
not stay there. I have resisted him, but 
he keeps coming back again." 

Why not, since even after our Lord's 
victory in His temptation, the devil 
left Him only " for a season " ? Shall 
the servant be above his Lord ? 

Fight on, and look for no end of the 
conflict on earth! Drive the devil 
away, but ever watch and pray against 
his renewed attacks. Fight on, cease- 
lessly, victoriously, — as you may, if you 
do not fight alone. 

For there is One — never forget it — who 
has conquered hell ; One, and only 
One. No man ever conquered it, but 
the God-man. Now, with Him all men 
may conquer it. 

Alas for you if you realize hell but do 
not realize Christ ! That is to see 
the chasm but not the bridge, the plague 
but not the physician, the enemy but not 
the reinforcement, threatening death but 
not victorious life. 

Standing by the side of Christ, His 
hand upon your shoulder, you can 



82 Help from 

look without a tremor upon the great 
gulf, you can face the great enemy with- 
out a fear. 

Christ knows your despair, your myr- 
iad failures, your increasing povver- 
lessness. To His might it is all one 
whether you have failed a thousand 
times or only once. " Let not your 
heart be troubled/' He says, " neither let 
it be afraid." 

Christ is adequate to any emergency. 
No sudden rush of temptation can 
surprise Him, no heaping of demonic 
allurements can seduce Him, no exhibi- 
tion of Satanic power can daunt Him, no 
weakness or defeat of yours can dis- 
courage Him. 

Oh, hell is deep, but Christ is taller 
than hell ! Temptation is a giant, 
but Christ's finger is stronger ! Sin is a 
poison in all our veins, but Christ is 
Health, regnant and everlasting ! 

Therefore will we not fear, though the 
earth be removed. Christ is in the 
midst of us, and we shall not be moved. 
He is our Refuge and Strength, a very 
present Help. 

© mi5 Saviour, XorD ot beaven, art a:bou 
not al0o tbe /Iftaster ot bell 7 IT blese C^bce 
tor ^bi2 plain wor^0 ot terrible warning* 
ir bleee ^bee tor tbe promises Interwoven 
wltb tbe tbreate* IT gloria In G:bi2 etern^^ 



Hell 83 

nees as In Zh'Q, love* IT too woulD 6ee 
tbtn96 a6 tbe^ ate, Qin in all its biDeou6=s 
ne60, penaltis in all its woe, tbat f maig 
also 6ee c:bee in all ^bis miabt of belptuU 
ne00* /Ibake as clear to me Zh'Q bell as 
^bi2 beaven* Grant me ITbis conquest over 
tbe one, ^bi2 inberitance ot tbe otber* 11 
taike 0laD retu^e in ^Tbee* ITsball bence** 
tortb forget mis tears, remembering XEbee ; 
forget mi2 sbame, remembering ^Tbee* BnD 
IF sball take courage even from mi2 fail:* 
ures, since tbeis force me ever nearer tbe 
IHnfailing ®ne* Bmen* 



X 

Help from Heaven 




r is the present-day fashion to urge 
men to do well in the hope of 
business advancement, a fat bank 
account, power in a corporation 
or a vast trust, a fine house, and 
the envious honor among men which 
these rewards produce. It is not the 
modern fashion to hold out as a Hfe-in- 
centive the hope of heaven. We are 
seeking a heaven on earth. 

But heaven is not on earth, though the 
kingdom of heaven, its fundamental 
principle, is. Nay, that kingdom, that 
claim, certainty, and authority of heaven, 
is within every heaven-directed heart. 

The kingdom of heaven that is on the 
earth, in the hearts of believers, is 
only a distant, island colony of heaven 
itself. As the United States is only 
faintly mirrored in the Philippines or 
Great Britain in the Falklands, so heaven 
is but dimly seen in its earthly outposts. 

No one can prepare himself for the 
next world by confining his thought 
to this world ; as well prepare yourself 
for a visit to those queerly named " Ce- 

84 



Heaven 85 

lestials " in Asia, by cooking to-day's 
breakfast or ploughing your corn-field, 
with no glance at geography, guide- 
book, or sailing-list. 

No one can live well in this world un- 
less he fixes his affections on things 
above this world, and beyond. If the 
ploughman would plough straight, he 
must not look at his feet in the furrow, 
but at the other side of the field. If the 
surveyor would avoid confusion, he must 
refer all lines to the North Star. 

The devil works through the lower ap- 
petites. He does not know how to 
tempt a man who is hungry for heaven. 
He is at home in fishing for you, but is 
at a loss when you fly. 

Most prudent is it therefore for the 
tempted man that, though his body 
must remain for a time in the devil's 
sphere, he lift his mind and interests 
above it, to the heaven where no sin 
enters, and no temptation to sin. 

Omy brother, beset by passions, 
bond-slave of your sensual desires, 
break the bonds, stamp the world be- 
neath your feet, live in the home of the 
soul ! 

How unreal is heaven to you ! How 
unreal it must be, not to draw you, 
with invincible soft compulsion, from the 
slime ! Is it not, to your apprehension, 



86 Help from 

a place of ghosts, of inane occupations, 
of empty, bloodless, unsubstantial living ? 
Do you not think of heaven as floating 
somewhere among the clouds, as filmy 
and faint as they ? No wonder such a 
heaven cannot draw you from your lusts ! 

Brother ! heaven is more solid than any- 
thing on earth ! When John wrote 
out his vision he was led to picture it in 
terms of the most compact substances 
known to him, — gold, glass, jaspar, pre- 
cious stones ! 

See how God loves the material world, 
— grass, trees, rocks, beautiful flesh, 
beautiful form, — even as He has taught 
you to love it. See how He exults in 
new fashions of it, and lavishes upon it 
the outpourings of His evident interest. 
Is all this for our whiff of time ? Is it 
not rather only a foretaste of eternity ? 
Will the Creator be different in heaven, 
and may we not know His Hkings there 
from His likings here ? 

But God is ^fel^spirit, you say, and a?^ 
spirit has' no flesh and bones, nor is 
a spiritual world a material one. 

Not material like this world, let us 
gladly believe, with its volcanic 
crust, its dying trees, its fading flowers, 
its wrinkled flesh, its deafened ears and 
age-dimmed eyes ! Not perishable mat- 
ter, but, of whatever matter, solid and 
substantial ! 



Heaven 87 

For consider what makes substance ; is 
it not your realization of it ? Would 
the ground seem substantial to you if 
you could sink through it, as a spirit 
can ? Would that door seem substantial 
to you if you could pass through its 
mass, as Christ could ? May not God 
have created a spiritual world that is as 
solid to our spiritual apprehension as 
this material world to our fleshly touch ? 
And when we enter our spiritual bodies, 
will it not then be this world of matter 
that will seem unreal and ghostly ? 

Banish, then, your fancies of a misty 
heaven ! They are unscriptural, un- 
philosophical, absurd, born of nurses' 
tales. 

Fill heaven with real things, with books 
that can be handled, with flowers 
that can be plucked, with trees that can 
be climbed, with houses whose floors 
ring to the tread ! Do not stop to re- 
mind yourself that these actual things 
cannot be there ; what corresponds to 
them will be there, as real, as familiar, as 
comforting. 

People heaven with real folks, children 
that can be hugged and kissed, men 
with whom you can shake hands, flesh 
that is firm to the touch, color that 
comes and goes in the cheek. Do not 
stop to remind yourself how gross this 
picture must be. It is spirituality itself 



88 Help from 

compared with the common conception 
of our spiritual bodies as floating bub- 
bles, with wings. 

To tell a child that dolls are in heaven, 
a music-lover that pianos are there, 
a book-lover that morocco-bound foHos 
are there, an artist that paint brushes and 
color tubes are there, is the least of 
blunders compared with permitting them 
to form a ghostly idea of heaven, or no 
idea at all. 

Be certain, whatever form heaven takes, 
that it will be as real as earth. Be 
certain, whatever new properties and 
joys will grow upon our knowledge, that 
heaven will not rudely startle us with 
strangenesses, but will be a familiar place, 
a dear place, home. And be certain, in 
it all, that heaven is infinitely better than 
the best of earth. 

For there will be no death there, and 
no sin. 

No death, but always the bright eye, 
the bounding step, the blush of 
health, the exhilaration of power, the 
delicate fascination of beauty ! 

No sin, no temptation, but white souls 
that cannot be stained, pure 
thoughts that cannot be fouled, heads 
that can forevermore be held erect ! 

nd so no sorrow there, no shadow of a 
tear, no shame or memory of shame, 



A 



Heaven 89 

no loneliness or fear of loneliness, no 
anxiety or dread, no more talk, even, — 
no more thought, even, of the miserable 
sins we have grown so used to ! How 
strange, how heavenly strange, it all will 
be! 

But work, there, the work we shall like 
the best, the work we can do the 
best, unhurried, never fruitless, never un- 
praised ! And play, there, the enjoy- 
ment we shall like the best, with the 
comrades we love the best, unmarred, 
exultant, and serene ! And rest, there, 
as long as we wish, as long as we need, 
when and where and as we wish it and 
need it, — ah, how good it will be ! 

These are no fairy tales. These are 
only the plain revelations of Christ, 
who proved beyond question His know- 
ledge of what He spoke. As certain as 
gravitation, as certain as the pyramids, as 
certain as the stone foundation of your 
house, are all these truths of heaven. 

Will you not make them vivid to your- 
self, so that they may become 
working factors in your life ? Do you 
not see how powerfully it will aid you in 
resisting temptation to keep ever before 
you this substantial blessedness, this 
solid, unspeakable glory, from which sin 
will infallibly shut you out forever? 
Having once seen it, will you give your- 
self longer to baubles ? 



90 Help from 

Dream, then, of heaven. Read all that 
revelation tells you of it. Meditate 
long on each particular, and discover all 
that it implies. Think often of the persons 
that must be there. Take them one by 
one, as you would review the neighbors 
in your street, for they may be your 
neighbors on your street in heaven. 

Let your fancy play about the theme. 
I think the Bible tells us so little 
about heaven, not to rebuke our curios- 
ity, but to pique it, and excite our imagi- 
nations, knowing that the happy reality 
far surpasses imagination. 

Plan your mansion there, how you will 
have the rooms. Will not Christ, 
who allows you to build your house here, 
let you have your liking there ? 

Plan your days there, what you want 
to do, whom you want to meet, what 
in all the universe you want to see. You 
will plan wiser and happier days, the 
nearer you get to Christ. 

Recur often to the thought, as the sor- 
rows and evils of life assail you, '* It 
is not so there." When sickness comes 
— '* It is not so there." When tempta- 
tions allure — '* It is not so there." When 
iniquity triumphs — *' It is not so there." 

Do not fear that all this will make you 
visionary, unpractical. They are the 
visionaries, they are the unpractical, who 



Heaven 91 

cheat themselves with baubles, and pur- 
sue the mirages of time, neglecting the 
substance of eternity. 

Do not expect heaven to become real 
to you at once, or without persist- 
ent wooing. ** It is only heaven that is 
given away " — yes ; but it is given only 
to long desire, patient determination, the 
spurning of the unheavenly, the eager 
and constant gaze beyond. 

In all your temptations therefore, and 
when sin is at a distance preparing an 
approach, make this your earnest peti- 
tion : — 

jFatber in beaven, ta!ie me to beaven! 
B6 it 16 Done In beaven IT woulD Do Z\)^ 
will on eartb, tbat H mais come to Do it in 
beaven* aforgive me tbat 11 reeponD bo 
eelDom to c:b^ call6t ^bi5 Drawings up^s 
warD* jForgive me tbe toUi^ tbat pulle me 
Down to tbe beaete* Sbow me Zh'QQClt, 
wbo art Ibeaven ! Zh'QQClt, iw wbom sin's 
power is vanauiebeD, vanisbeD* ZTb^selft 
tbe JBeautitul, tbe Beeirable* 11 love ITbee, 
anD IT woulD love onli^ ^bee* ^bese lower 
tbing6 tbat IT love, anD loving bate, anD 
bating Despiae, ob. Drive tbem out ot mi^ 
lite ! 11 will supplant tbe passions ot eartb 
witb a passion tor beaven* Bs botl^ as 11 
bave pursueD tbem IT will seel; it, anD 
Zhcc. f will bring to tbe true stanDarD 



92 Heaven 

m^ sense ot realittee^ ^btngs transient 
sball be Qbostli^ to me, anD tbe eternal 
tbings sball be substanttaL Ifmplant 
vvltbin me C^bis MngDom ot beaven, ® 6oD, 
anD bring me satel^ to m^ coronation Dai^ ! 
Q:brou0b ricbes ot grace in Cbrist S^esus 
m^ XorD^ Bmen* 




XI 

Help from Human Dignity 

HEN next you are tempted to 
sin, think of what you are, 
think of your origin, think 
of your destiny, think of the 
plans God has for you, think 
of the possibihties open to you, think of 
the dear ones dependent upon you, think 
of the hfe you might hve, unmarred, 
growing in beauty, growing in power ; 
and hold up this picture of your ideal 
self as a shield between you and temp- 
tation. 

We care not when a horse's hoof 
splashes m the mire ; but, alas, 
when the sandalled foot of a princess 
falls there ! 

We take no heed, though a thousand 
cheap chromos are burned up ; but 
the whole world would mourn at the 
loss of the Sistine IMadonna. 

Oh, bethink you, when next you 
hunger after some pollution, what 
work of a Master you are about to de- 
file ! What harmony in your body you 
are about to turn into discord, what 
majesty of mind you are about to lower 

93 



94 Help from 

into filth, what excellence of hope, what 
proud alliance with eternity, you are 
trampling beneath your feet ! 

Know yourself to be a child of God. 
That will be meaningless unless you 
know God ; but, knowing God, it will be 
a perpetual crown. 

A child of God ; for are you not made 
in His image? Those feet, that 
slink to dens of foulness ; those eyes, 
that gloat upon vileness ; your mouth 
that swallows iniquity and speaks poi- 
son ; your brain that hoards debasement 
like a miser, — how in them all you put 
to shame the image of God ! 

A child of God ; for have you not re- 
ceived of His nature ? Can you not 
reason ? — and persuade yourself to sin ! 
Can you not plan ? — and devise schemes 
of evil ! Can you not make choice of 
good ? — and, alas ! make choice of un- 
righteousness. 

A child of God ; for are you not called 
to His work? Is it not yours to 
subdue the world? — and behold, you are 
subdued by it ! Is it not yours to create 
joy? — and see how you are fashioning 
sorrow ! Is it not yours to live for 
others ? — and your life is turned in upon 
yourself! Is it not yours to win souls 
to God ? — and alas, alas ! your soul is 
Satan's ! 



Human Dignity 95 

A child of God; for you are to live 
forever ! Evermore to sit with Him 
as joint owner and ruler of heaven, or sit 
with Satan in the everlasting gloom of 
hell! 

Hold up your hand — the rarest, most 
wonderful, most perfect of tools. 
View your body, — no engine runs so 
well ; your ear, your eye, your tongue — 
what marvelous faculties of hearing, 
vision, speech ! Consider the casket of 
your skull, and whether the round earth 
contains matter more intricately skilled ! 
What leagues of thought He coiled up 
there ! What seeds of fancy have burst 
there to forest or jungle ! What a conti- 
nent is folded within a hand-space ! 

Yours is the Koh-i-noor of God's crea- 
tion ; will you scratch idly with it 
upon the rock ? Yours is the sceptre of 
time and eternity ; will you use it to stir 
up mud ? 

Reverence thyself! for there is so 
much of God in thee. Crush rare 
porcelain beneath your feet, tear rich 
garments to tatters, hurl your watch 
against a boulder, but revere your body 
and your mind in their least powers and 
functions, for they are the workmanship 
of God ! 

To abuse even your eyes or your teeth 
with careless usage, to abuse your 
stomach with foul drink, to abuse with 



9^ Help from 

passion those creative powers in which 
man is nearest God, — all this, in their 
degrees, is to abuse the God within you, 
and set at naught the God above you. 

Reverence thyself ! Not a deed or 
thought of lust but burns up a thou- 
sand prayers. No act or desire of in- 
temperance but crushes some noble am- 
bition. 

Reverence thyself! Thy life is a holy 
cathedral, majestic with lofty arches, 
lovely with pictured windows, shot 
through with color, pulsing a noble 
song. Not a temptation resisted but 
deepens the radiance of its glory ; not a 
temptation received but darkens the 
panes, stills the music, and infects the 
masonry with decay. 

What chances you miss, when you fall 
into sin ! Never once has the trap 
caught you, but the King has passed 
by! 

Now it has been a child to help, and 
your soul was too full of bitterness 
to yield comfort. Now it has been a 
word to speak for God, and shame has 
held your tongue. Now some door of 
great usefulness has opened to you, and 
you, who could not rule yourself, have 
not dared take direction of others. Not 
once have you poured out your strength 
for Satan, but some urgent need has de- 
manded that strength for God. 



Human Dignity 97 

Since the world is so full of need. Are 
there not many that look to you for 
their cheer, their guidance, their sup- 
port? Can you ever sin to yourself 
alone ? 

Nay, there are threads from your life to 
all the world ! Let sin cut any 
thread, and something, many things, 
must go awry. 

To be a man, and to do a man's work, 
requires no atom less than all your 
time, your powers, and your desire. 
Every minute spent in sin, every waste 
of nerve or muscle upon it, and every 
motion toward it of your mind, assures 
that you are less a man, and will do less 
than a man's work. 

Has God given you to teach ? When 
temptation next assails you, say, 
** That, or some new truth ; that, or my 
strength for patience and enhghtenment." 

Has God given you to write ? On the 
next enticement to sin, say, '' This 
foulness, or some pure poem ; this vile- 
ness, or some inspiring essay.'* 

Has God given you a home ? At the 
next impulse to iniquity, say, 
*' That, or more money for my wife, 
more smiles for my children, more honor 
for the family I have founded." 



98 Help from 

There is no man living who does not 
walk attended by a more than royal 
retinue ; well if he has eyes to see it ! 
There are the good and great who have 
gone before him, in his church, his call- 
ing, his village, — all the nobility of char- 
acter whose examples should speak to 
his soul. There are his friends, his loved 
ones, the living who are bound to him 
so closely. And there are the dear ones 
who have died, his mother, perhaps, with 
sainted, tender face, or his wife, wdth 
spirit eyes turned eagerly upon him. 

What has he done, what has any man 
done, to deserve this lavishment of 
love, this wealth of incentive to a manly 
life ? And what can he do, if he is a 
man, but spurn the baseness that will 
grieve these presences, and live in some 
way worthy of their love ? 

With what endlessness God has en- 
dowed our human deeds ! It is a 
divine, an awful attribute. You need be 
no Demosthenes to speak words that 
never will die ; every man on earth has 
done that. You need be no Alexander 
to affix an imperishable stamp upon the 
universe ; every man on earth has done 
that. 

But when God gave wings to our lives, 
He let them fly down as well as up. 
Have you not committed some sin, years 
past, perhaps, that is as terribly on your 



Human Dignity 99 

heart as if it were yesterday, that has not 
left you with its anguish for a single day, 
that has brought woe to birth upon woe 
in daily generations of sorrow, and that, 
unless God hides some Lethe in the after 
life, will follow you with an eternity of 
remorse ? Praise God, indeed, if you 
have not many such sins ! 

For there is not an evil thought, cher- 
ished in the blackest of midnight, 
but may shudder dovvn through all the 
sorrowing ages. There is not the least 
temptation, which you embrace however 
cautiously, but may widen out to the 
circle of your life and all lives. Bless 
God, there is no end to goodness. O 
God, is there no end to sin ? 

What will you do, then, in the face of 
this horror ? What will you do, 
then, whose least deed may do so much ? 
What can you do but pray, at ail times, 
and with all your soul : — 

© mi2 Creator, 1F am feartulli2 anD \oow^ 
Dertulli^ maDe^ IT etanD atralD betore m^:* 
selt* 1F Qlox'Q in tbe gooD C^bou bast 
opened betore me, IT tremble at m^ powere 
ot evlL ir ean qo so tar at a step, 1F C)are 
not etep witbout G^bee* Since m^ mo* 
ment6 are immortal, 1F Dare not live a mo:* 
ment wttbout XTbee* 1F bring to ^bee x^vq, 
wretcbeD past* CTou alone canst overtake 
tbe evil worD, anD silence It* ^bou alone 
LofC. 



loo Human Dignity 

canet 6tai2 tbe wave ot influence, anD 
level It witb tbe eea^ O^bou alone canst 
taneom mis soul trom tbe prieon ot its 
past* IF will wall? trom mis Dungeon tree, 
witb C^bee ! 1f will Dare tbe transformation 
G:bou Dost offer, tbe sceptre, tbe tbrone ! 
IF will Dare tbe Dignitis of manbooD, 1F will 
live as a cbilD of (3oD ! BnD 1F will Do it {\{ 
bumble reliance on 1bim wbo was tbe Son 
of ©oD anD Son of maut Bmen* 




XII 

Help from Vigilance 

UST after I have sinned, how easy- 
it is to repent ! How decisively 
I plan never to yield again ! 
How desirable, how attainable, 
is a life of purity — just after I 
have sinned ! 

Ifind that nothing is easier, or more 
satisfying, than to devise a way out 
of temptation ; and that nothing is 
easier, or more humiliating, than to fall 
in such a way. 

Ifind that the devil's most persuasive 
sedative is to say, ** That is the last 
time. Henceforth you are God's and 
not the devil's. Lift up your head and 
puff out your breast ! " 

Ifind that it is the easiest thing in the 
world to plan how I shall cease sin- 
ning. I find that it is the hardest thing 
in the world — just to stop. 

If I could only perpetuate the horror 
of sin that comes just after I have 
sinned ! If my eyes could always see 
its real character as I perceive it then ! 
If my heart could always understand its 

lOI 



102 Help from 

fearful consequences as I comprehend 
them at that moment ! How impossible 
it seems to sin again — ^just after I have 
sinned ! 

But Satan masks as an angel of light. 
He is never more at home than in 
the garb of sham repentance. Little 
cares he how much straw is thrown away, 
while the root is in the ground. 

Satan undermines like a wave, that re- 
treats after each onset, only to get 
momentum for a fresh attack. 

Satan destroys like an intermittent 
fever, allowing us, every other day, 
to renew the confidence of health, that 
he may seize our powers unaware. 

Satan is most to be feared when we 
fear him not, and most to be avoided 
when he withdraws from us. 

Not once for all did Christ, those forty 
days in the wilderness, conquer 
Satan. The adversary left him only 
'' for a season." Many and many a time 
Christ had to cry, '' Get thee behind me, 
Satan ! " 

That is why the Master bids us 
"■ Watch ! " That is why, over and 
over through the marvelous three years 
of teaching, He exclaims, *' Watch ! Ye 
know not the day nor the hour. He 
comes like a thief in the night. He sows 
while ye sleep. Watch, watch, watch ! " 



Vigilance 1 03 

As I write, the Government is carrying 
on its. naval manoeuvres. Some- 
where off the coast of New England is 
a mimic hostile fleet. The fleet of de- 
fense is anxiously anticipating an attack. 
Its search-lights are ranging the waves 
for torpedo boats. Its lines of intelli- 
gence are flashing up and down the 
coast. Every harbor is hot with ex- 
pectation. 

For three days the " enemy " have been 
invisible. The tension is growing 
desperate. The longer the delay, the 
more imminent is the assault. But 
where? The weary hours of watching 
are beginning to tell. It is a contest of 
nerves, not of gunpowder. Who will 
be the first to nod ? 

Fit symbol, this, of the contest I am 
waging on the sea of the soul ! 
Only, my ship is but one, and the black 
fleet of the adversary is multitudinous. 

But one ? Ah, blind that I am ! Open 
my eyes, Lord, as Thou didst open 
Elisha's, that I may see the ocean 
crowded with celestial battleships round 
about my frail vessel ! But one ? I 
am convoyed by all the armament of 
heaven ! 

For Thou, O my God, hast an eye that 
never sleeps. Not from the opening 
dawn of creation, through all the multi- 



104 Help from 

tude of midnights since, has Thy vigi- 
lance relaxed, Thy soul yielded to 
slumber. 

With what love Thou hast brooded 
over me ! With what passionate 
care Thou hast sought to warn me of 
peril ! What safeguards hast Thou 
placed about me ! What alarms hast 
Thou raised ! Through what weary, 
disappointing years has Thy care been 
unrewarded, Thy watchfulness found me 
asleep ! 



c 



an I not watch with Thee one hour ? 



It is only an hour, after all. So brief 
is my Hfe, so short is the vigilance 
needed. 

Only a little time to be a man, and 
then a glorified spirit forever ! Only 
a little testing, and then eternal assur- 
ance ! Only a short stress and strain, 
and then the endless reaches undis- 
turbed ! 



c 



an I not watch with Thee one hour ? 



Can I not, in the first place, get a better 
memory for my sins ? Let me often 
brood over them, not for discourage- 
ment, but for understanding. Let me 
constantly remind myself how I sinned 
last time, — how a brief righteousness led 



Vigilance 105 

to confidence, and confidence to careless- 
ness, and carelessness to a fall. Let me 
recall the circumstances of the sin, not to 
gloat over them, but to avoid them. Let 
me renew from day to day my horror of 
sin and the ardor of my last repentance. 

And, in the second place, can I not 
build up a barrier against the devil ? 
A barrier of good books, manly exercise, 
ennobling friendships, purifying prayers. 
It is not enough for a general to repel 
attacks. It is possible for him to make 
a fort so strong that it will not be at- 
tacked. It will then stand unworn by 
conflict and undisturbed by anxiety. 

And then, can I not make resistance to 
evil the rule of my life ? Can I not 
absolutely cease dalliance with it, even 
in apparent trifles ? Can I not engage 
in some world-wide or nation-wide battle 
against it, that I may see its hideousness 
in the large and so come to hate it more 
heartily in myself ? Can I not cease to 
be a militiaman against the devil, and 
enlist in the regular army ? Can I not 
abandon amateurdom, and make it a 
business to abolish sin ? 

The task requires time. Most men are 
weak because they will not spend 
time on their muscles ; most men are 
spiritual weaklings because they will not 
take time to be holy. 



io5 Help from 

The task requires toil. Vigilance means 
vigils. A fort is not a hotel. Armies 
do not carry feather beds. No one can 
master himself and please himself. Sin 
is a disease, and there is no room for 
ease in the conquest of it. 

The task requires thought. We are op- 
posed by a master of strategy. No 
empty brain can beat the devil. There 
is not an argument, there is not a con- 
firmation of reason, there is not a forti- 
fying of example, there is not a testi- 
mony of science, there is not a plea of 
the sages, there is not a command of 
Scripture, that will not be needed in the 
warfare. 

I would magnify Satan. For though, 
matched with our God, he is such a 
feeble thing, matched with men he is a 
terrible thing. Sin slumbers not. Sin 
reaches everywhere. Darkness is light 
for sin, and the intricacies of the soul are 
sin's highways. No man is safe against 
sin, and the omnipresent peril is also 
infinite and eternal. 

How shall I avoid sin unless I fear it ? 
And how shall I fear it unless I hate 
it ? And how shall I hate it unless, with 
all my horrified being, I know it ? 

Let me admit no lapse in my hatred, 
that there may be no flaw in my 
vigilance. If the devil wears a green 



Vigilance 107 

robe, let me even avoid the green trees ! 
If the devil cloaks himself in blue, let 
me even shun the blue sky ! 

Let me know that I have fallen when I 
begin to fall, and not only when I 
reach the bottom of the pit. Let me 
know that I am most in danger when I 
begin to slight the danger. Let me 
know that silence is all the consent the 
devil wants, and that drooping eyes are 
the only opportunity he seeks. 

But is the memory of sin to darken all 
my hours on earth ? Better thus, 
than that the fact of sin should shroud 
your eternal life. 

But is the Christian to know no peace ? 
Yes, peace in the conflict ; never, on 
earth, peace from the conflict. 

What avails the presence of Christ, if 
Satan also must ever be present to 
my thought? This, that the devil will 
be behind you, Christ being ever before 
you ! 

How can I pray without ceasing, and 
watch without intermission, I with 
my human frailties, I with my fluctuating 
powers ? 

You breathe without ceasing : make 
prayer the breath of your soul ! 
Your heart beats without ceasing : make 
watchfulness the pulse of your nature ! 



io8 Help from 

How can I make prayer my breath and 
vigilance my heart-beat? for that 
is a mystical metaphor, and temptations 
are uncompromising realities. 

Ah, then, make prayer a reality, the 
presence of Christ a reality, the love 
of purity a reality, the hatred of evil a 
reality ! If sin is more real to you than 
prayer, it is to you it is more real, and 
not to God's saints. To them, the life 
of prayer is the only substantial life, and 
sin has become the half-forgotten horror 
of a dream. 

There is no vigilance against sin until 
there is sincerity in the Christian 
life. When we begin — I do not say, to 
love God with all our heart, but to try to 
love Him with all our heart, then we can 
begin to fight Satan with all our soul. 

And any other antagonism to evil is no 
antagonism at all. The fort is not 
guarded, however vigilant the sentries in 
front, if one sentry at the rear corner 
falls asleep. Satan prefers the rear and 
the corners. The soul is not opposing 
Satan, however brave its show of oppo- 
sition, while one least desire is in league 
with him. 



ust we then be perfect, in order to be- 
. come perfect ? Aye, as our Father 
in heaven is perfect ! That is the Chris- 
tian paradox. 



M 



Vigitance 109 

It would be a hopeless paradox, were 
our own perfection the only one at- 
tainable. But we may put on Christ. 
As a seamless robe, His purity. As a 
flawless armor, His courage. As a gar- 
ment of Hght, His vigilance. 

Yes, we may put on Christ. In His 
perfection we may put off the works 
of darkness and assume the armor of 
hght. Joined with Him, we shall make 
no more provision for the flesh, to fulfil 
the lusts thereof. 

Come, tben, bleaaeD XorD, wbo art ever 
watcbtng in ©etbsemane! 2)well ^bou in 
U6, anD we will watcb wltb a:bee» a:bougb 
wltb agonic anO blooDis sweat, we will 
watcb witb ^bee* ZhowQh In a passion of 
prater, we will watcb witb a:bee* O^bougb 
tbe darkness deepens anD JuDas Draws 
near, we will watcb witb a:bee* n^bougb 
tbe niQbt is long anD colD, tbougb tbe 
rocfts are barD, tbougb tbe tempest beats 
upon us, we will watcb witb a:bee^ jfor 
tbe morning will breaft at last* ^be sun 
will rise over ©livet* Zhc birDs will sing, 
anD tbe beavens will sbout* jfor our as=s 
cension Dai^ will come, anD tbe 3f atber will 
litt us out of ©etbsemane, forever anD 
ever* amen* 




XIII 

Help from the Atonement 

O one can in his deepest soul be- 
heve the atonement unless he 
has set himself to the desperate 
struggle with sin, has fallen and 
risen again, once more fallen 
again to rise, and so lived in alternate 
courage and despair. The atonement is 
not a truth that angels can comprehend ; 
only sad, discouraged, shamefaced man. 

For no one can fight long against his 
sin without discovering that it is not 
to-day's sin alone that he is combating, 
but yesterday's sin also, and last year's. 
If it were only to-day's sin, the contest 
would be hard enough ; but when it has 
back of it the downward momentum of 
all past sins, the battle is indeed a terrible 
one. 

For there never was a sin that did not 
make the next sin easier to commit, 
just as flames grow upon flames, or mil- 
dew upon mildew. 

I am master of to-day, but yesterday is 
master of me. I have strength enough 
to meet to-day's temptations — perhaps ; 
at least, no one has more than enough 

no 



The Atonement iii 

strength for that. Certainly I have not 
strength enough to fight, in addition to 
to-day's temptations, the temptations of 
last month, of the last decade. 

Yet how they swarm upon me ! The 
poison my soul imbibed, from book 
or picture or spoken word, a dozen years 
ago. The evil habit I formed, perhaps, 
in my childhood. The brandied air that 
burst out upon me yesterday as I passed 
a certain door. The memory of a 
wrong, forgotten by every one else, that 
has rankled in my heart for twenty years, 
embittered my life and bent it toward 
unkindness. I can forget the good ; why 
is it so hard to forget the evil? 

Temptations are derelicts ; they are dis- 
mantled v/recks of pirate ships, float- 
ing on the ocean of Hfe. They have 
been met and fought and overcome, but 
they are as dangerous thus adrift as they 
ever were when the crew was aboard and 
all sails were set. I am likely to run 
into them at any time. 

Oh, the awful power of an evil past! 
Oh, the horror of any evil in a past 
however good ! Memory has wings for 
any height. Memory can see in any 
darkness. Memory can follow any 
course of fortune. And suggestions of 
wickedness often grow more fascinating 
with time, like the ripening apples in the 
Garden of Eden. 



112 Help from 

Oh, the awful power of an evil past ! 
Oh, the horror of any evil in a past 
however good ! It is alw^ays lurking 
around the corner. It may leap out of 
any shadow. As infection may lie in 
the dust along a rafter, to repeat and 
multiply the disease after the physicians 
are forgotten, so sin lies in poisonous 
ambush. 

Oh, the awful power of an evil past! 
Oh, the horror of any evil in a past 
however good ! ^ Men may raise a dyke 
against the ocean, but not against the 
tide of memory. Men may erect a bar- 
rier against the wind, but not against the 
miasma of a remembered passion. Men 
may drain a swamp, but no tiles can be 
laid along the corrugations of the brain. 

*' T live," the sinner must say, in horrible 
A echo of Paul's words, '' I live, yet not 
I, but sin living in me. The poisonous 
vapor I once drew in is still the breath 
of my life. The devil's tool I once used 
is still the habit of my hand. I am, 
sadly and fearfully, all that I have been.'* 

But the evil past is more than a living 
memory, a perpetuated temptation ; 
it is an accumulating penalty. 

Those that are fighting sin — I say not, 
those that sin, but those that are 
fighting sin — need no proof that sin is 
punished. No surer the char after the 



the Atonement 113 

fire, no surer the rot after the mildew, no 
surer the dissolution after the consump- 
tion, than penalty after sin. 

No need to say, '^ Eternity will prove 
it," for time proves it, the next in- 
stant exemplifies it. 

No need to say, " Eternity will continue 
it," for every year adds to its power, 
the swiftness and black depth of its cur- 
rent. 

No need to say, ^' It is inevitable," for 
they have been using all arts to 
shun it, and they see the world of sinners 
with every sin using all arts to shun it, 
yet it comes, and comes instantly, and 
comes increasingly. 

What life is there, however fair to the 
eye, over which is not stamped the 
black doom, '' Forfeit ! " '' Forfeit " be- 
cause of a myriad misdeeds. '' Forfeit" 
to eternal death. 

I do not say that all sinners feel this ; 
far from that. Millions revolt against 
the justice of God's decrees. Millions 
assert that they are not so * much to 
blame, that they are the sport of fate, the 
creatures of circumstance, the victims 
of their irresponsible nature. Millions 
deny that any penalty is their desert, 
save perhaps the transient punishment of 
weakness, loss, disease, or discomfort 
here in the body. 



114 Help from 

But I do say that all sinners that have 
earnestly struggled against their sin 
feel this. They comprehend their in- 
iquity. They realize how deeply it is 
seated, how persistently ingrained. They 
loathe themselves. They themselves have 
long ago written ** Forfeit " upon their 
souls. They know that they are lost. 

Looking backward, they see the on- 
rolling wave of transgressions, rush- 
ing with cumulative velocity down the 
slopes of time. Looking around, they 
see the present duty, and themselves 
barely able to do it, daily weaker against 
the crescent might of temptation and 
growing dread of doom. Looking ahead 
into the lowering future they see no 
light, for the sun is buried behind them. 

These are only words to the careless, 
only fancies to the scoffer, only 
hypocrisies to the hardened ; but to the 
awakened sinner, who is yet bound to the 
body of his death, I have painted the 
picture true. 

And so I cannot paint — no words can 
describe — the joy the atonement 
brings to such a soul. He alone, as I 
say, can believe it. It soon becomes the 
one BeHef to him. 

That the past can be rolled up, sealed, 
and sunk in the bottomless pit ! 



the Atonement 115 

That the past can be washed out, its 
stains removed, its foulnesses made 
white as snow ! 

That the past can be transformed, taken 
up into the inimitable Divine, its very- 
atoms disassociated and recombined, till 
the long, wrong years have become a 
new creation, fit for a new creature ! 

That the flood of iniquitous memories 
can be barred. That the derelicts 
can be sunk. That the floating germs 
can be captured and destroyed. That 
man cannot do it, but that it can be 
done. 

That God will remember our sins no 
more. And if they no longer exist 
in God's memory, they cannot exist in 
any memory. 

This is the atonement. This is the 
Gospel, the Good News. 

It is news indeed. We could never have 
guessed it. Without the Life, we 
could never have believed it. 

For we cannot understand it. There is 
but one atonement, but there are 
scores of theories of it. And those com- 
prehend it best who do not try to under- 
stand it, only accept it. 

It is to be accepted without understand- 
ing because it comes from Him whom 
we must accept, yet cannot understand. 



ii6 Help from 

From Him who surely lived and died 
and rose again ; from Him who ruled 
waves and wind, trees, animals, diseases, 
death ; from Him who spake as never 
man spake ; from Him whom the ages 
had foretold, to whom the opening 
heavens testified ; from Him who was 
tempted in all points as we are, yet with- 
out sin. 

It was He who promised eternal life to 
all that should believe Him. It was 
He whose very name means Saviour. It 
was He whose blood was shed for the 
sending away of sins. It was He, the 
living Bread, of whom if one eat he will 
hve forever. It was He through whose 
sacrifice our sins, though scarlet, shall be 
as white as snow ; and though red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool. Praise 
to His blessed name forever ! 

There is truth in all theories of the 
atonement. It is too vast a truth to 
be comprehended by all theories ; its 
margins reach far beyond them. Live in 
the atonement, if you want to see how 
much more we know than we under- 
stand. 

And you will Hve in the atonement if 
you simply accept it, and place it 
among the undoubted facts of your life. 
If you simply say, '' Here is Christ, very 
man, very God. I believe Him. I love 
Him. I adore Him. Here are' His 



the Atonement 117 

words, that from all that beheve Him He 
will remove their iniquity, and remember 
it no more forever. I believe Him. 
Those words are true of me." 

Then, if you really believe this, you 
will live in that belief; your life will 
be that belief. 

Do I mean that your old evil life will 
no longer steal through the doors of 
memory and the gates of habit, that the 
temptations of the past will be tempta- 
tions no longer ? 

Perhaps. Many a drunkard, whom gold 
cures and all other cures had dismally 
failed to cure, has lost on conversion his 
appetite for alcohol ; many a licentious 
man has forgotten his lusts, many a 
covetous man has got rid of his greed. 

But also, perhaps not. There are con- 
verted drunkards to whom the odor 
of a bar is still a maddening allurement. 
There are converted debauchees and 
misers who must always, in this Hfe, 
fight their lusts. 

And do I mean that the penalty of sin 
is altogether removed? No, not 
that, either. If the drunkard has ruined 
his digestion, conversion will not restore 
his health. If the miser has driven a 
debtor to a wretched grave, conversion 
will not restore the debtor to Hfe. 



ii8 Help from 



W 



hat, then, is the atonement good 
for? 



This : greatly, this : it puts us at one 
with God. So that we count it all 
joy when we fall into manifold tempta- 
tions, gladly acquiescing in God's plans 
for our disciphne and testing. So that 
we become a part of God s justice, and 
exult in the reign of His righteousness, 
and would not have rebelhon against 
Him less severely punished, though it 
were to remove heavy sorrow from our- 
selves. 

At one with God ! He dwelling in us 
and we in Him. His future our 
future. His safety our safety. His pur- 
ity our purity. His peace our peace. If 
I have this, what can I wish besides ? 
What, indeed, is there besides to wish ? 

ir Do not aelft It, xm Saviour* IT receive 
ft* 1F will not etuD^ It* t will use It* ir 
am Done wttb tbe paet, now Zbow baet be:s 
gun wltb it* ir will forget m^ sine, xc^ 
memberlng XTbee* IT welcome tbe lite 
G:bou Do0t 6enD me* IFt 10 Zh'o, lite now, 
anD to be welcomed wttb ej:ultatton* 
lpr€90 tbe temptatlone In at ever^ point* 1Ft 
I0 Zh'Q lite* So DID Satan assail XTbee* So 
DID tbe tborns pierce OT15 fleeb* lUIleiGb 
me Down wltb tbe meriteD penalties ot mi2 
transareeslons* 1ft is c:b^ lite* So, all 



the Atonement 119 

unDeservtngt wert Z\^o\x welgbeD Down in 
<3etb0emanet on Calvary* Sball tbe Dts:* 
clple be more blest tban bt6 XorD, tbe xc^ 
DeemeD tban tbe IReDeemet? So eball IT 
walk wltb a:bee on tbe eartb* So eball ir 
reign wltb tTbee in gloria* BnD walMng or 
relgnina mi^ jo^ eball be in c:bee, 3Lor& 
5e6U6* Bmen* 




XIV 

Help from the Bible 

OU have a Bible ; but do you 
own it? You hold it in your 
hands ; do you hold it in your 
heart ? You read in it ; do you 
feed on it ? 

The Bible is the medicine-chest given 
us by the Great Physician. Are the 
labels on the sixty-six vials eloquent to 
you ? Do you know for what each is a 
remedy, or do you take them at hap- 
hazard and in the dark? 

There are two primary mistakes with 
regard to the Bible. One is not to 
read it at all ; the other is not to read it 
with a purpose. 

And so there are two primary direc- 
tions for the use of the Bible. One 
is, Read it.- Read it regularly, read it 
perseveringly, read it in large measure, 
perhaps a book at a time. The other is. 
Always read it for power. Power over 
doubt, power over grief, power over 
temptation. 

Tempted souls have gone to the Bible, 
opened it at ignorant random, and 
hit upon a vein of the gold they sought. 

1 20 



The Bible 121 

For the Bible is rich in precious ore. 
But others have blundered upon no dis- 
covery, and have scouted the Bible as a 
useless book. 

Not thus does the wise gold-seeker go 
to work. He prospects the moun- 
tains, valley after valley, spur after spur, 
peak after peak. He learns the strata, 
what they are, how they lie, what each 
contains. To this he goes for lead, to 
that for zinc, to another for silver. He 
could guide you along any path in the 
dark, and when he strikes pick, it is not 
in vain. 

So it is with this mountain range of the 
Bible. A friend may point out one 
rich outcropping or two, but it is only a 
shift for the time. You must know the 
Bible through and through, for yourself. 

No one knows whether the Bible can 
help him or not until he has read it 
from cover to cover, in sections large 
enough to give comprehensive views, 
with aids sufficient to insure understand- 
ing, and with a definite purpose systemat- 
ically pursued. In no inferior fashion 
would you survey a farm offered for sale ; 
and surely the Bible has as much prom- 
ise for you as a farm. 

Therefore, O tempted soul, book after 
book, from Genesis to Revelation, 
pursue the sacred journey ! Tarry not 
with the beauties and delights that crowd 



122 Help from 

upon you. Keep an eye single for one 
discovery, — help against temptation. 

And wherever you find this help, plainly 
mark it in the margin, returning to 
the spot over and over, and reviewing its 
wisdom till it has joined itself to your 
soul. 

If you read the Bible with this one aim, 
there are few pages you will not 
mark; just as there are few pages you 
will not mark if you read the Bible with 
any other aim. 

From the fall of man in the opening 
chapters to the doom of the wicked 
and reward of the righteous in the clos- 
ing chapter, the entire Bible is a treatise 
on temptation and its conquest. The 
stories of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Noah ; 
of Abraham, Lot, Esau, and Jacob ; of 
Joseph, Moses, Miriam, and Aaron ; of 
Balaam, Joshua, Samson, and Gideon; 
of Eli, Samuel, Saul, David, Absalom, 
and Solomon ; of Rehoboam, Jeroboam, 
Ahab, and Elijah ; of Esther, Ezra, Ne- 
hemiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel; of Amos 
and Micah ; of John the Baptist and 
Jesus our Lord ; of Mary, of Magda- 
lene, of Judas, Peter, and Paul — all the 
names I have named, and scores of 
names I might add, are pictured in the 
Bible as conquerors or victims of temp- 
tation. 



the Bible 123 

It was prophesied of John the Baptist 
that he should hve in the spirit and 
power of Ehjah ; and he did. So may 
all who will read the Bible live in the 
spirit and power of John and Elijah both, 
and of all the other men and women of 
God, who have overcome themselves and 
the world. 

It is possible, reading and thinking long 
of a noble character, to incorporate 
his personality in our lives ; it is not only 
possible, it is inevitable. You have read 
your Bible to httle purpose unless you, 
too, become an Elijah, a John the Bap- 
tist. 

You will never know w^hat portion of 
the wonderful book will aid you 
most, or next. I remember that once I 
was greatly helped in temptation by 
reading the story of the woman who 
touched Christ's robe in the crowd. To 
this day, though it was years ago, I can 
feel the thrill with w^hich I realized that 
the slightest contact of faith with Christ 
would heal me of my sin. 

Many another passage has come to me, 
at the time of need, with a message 
as fresh and startling as if God had 
spoken from the air above my head. 
Yet they might all be ineffective in your 
temptations, while your discoveries might 
be meaningless to me. 



124 Help from 

For no man owns the whole Bible. It 
is too large for that, and our exper- 
ience is too small. Every man makes 
his own Bible — a Bible constantly grow- 
ing, if he grows, but always a smaller 
Bible than the Scriptures. 

It is a great thing to make a Bible — one 
of the greatest things any man ever 
does. For no one can make a Bible ex- 
cept through making his own, one by 
one, the experiences of the Bible heroes 
and saints. Did any one ever add all 
the Psalms to his Bible? or all of the 
letter to the Romans ? 



T 



he Bible you make is the only one 
you can really use. It is not using a 
passage to hunt it up with a concordance 
and dig out its meaning with a com- 
mentary, any more than it is using your 
house to prove title in a court of law. 
You use your house when you live in it, 
and so with a Bible passage. 

And what a lordly palace the Bible is ! 
There are rooms we never enter. 
There are ranges of rooms that are as un- 
familiar as a stranger's house. How 
little of our Bibles we have really moved 
into ! 

It was only the other day that I moved 
into First and Second Corinthians. 
Just now they are my favorite rooms. I 
am still in the new delight of discovery 
of those twelve connected galleries, the 



the Bible 125 

Minor Prophecies. And in every room 
I find surprises of usefulness and beauty 
all the time. ' 

It is easy to think that you are making 
a Bible when you are not. No Bible 
is yours till you use it. You do not use 
it until it has become an instinct. 

Y'~" ou do not use your Bible if, when 
you are tempted, you must say to 
yourself, " Now is there anything in 
Paul's writings that fits this temptation ? 
Let me see — Romans, Corinthians First, 
Second, a, e, i, o, Galatians, Ephesians, 
Phihppians, Colossians ; perhaps the 
armor chapter would fit ; I w411 look it 
up." Satan would deal his decisive 
stroke long before that. 

No ; you are using Paul's writings if, as 
soon as the temptation assails you, 
your thought leaps to its w^eapons : 
'' Keep the body under ! Mortify the 
flesh ! Crucified with Christ ! With the 
temptation the way of escape ! In all 
points tempted like as we are ! Stand, 
therefore ! Resist unto blood, striving 
against sin ! " This is to be a Paul and to 
own his writings, that is to say, his spirit 
and powder. 

A paper Bible will not answer ; only a 
memory Bible will avail in the com- 
bat with the devil. He likes best to fight 
in the darkness, when you cannot see to 
read ; in your feebleness, when you are 



126 Help from 

too weary to hunt up a book ; in your 
despondency, when heart and will are 
broken. 

Sin flashes upon you through your 
instincts, the baser ones ; therefore 
I say the Bible cannot help you till it 
also has become an instinct, a holy one. 

How shall we exalt the Bible into an 
instinct? Only by meditation and 
obedience. 

By meditation. No hasty wooing wins 
a great truth. If you w^ant the 
Bible you must pay the price, and part 
of the price is time and patience. A 
lifetime of courageous living is in the 
six pages of Amos, and will you make 
them your own in half an hour ? 

And by obedience. No one has a 
larger Bible than he obeys. No 
one can enlarge his Bible except by 
obeying more. That story of the 
woman who touched Christ's garment is 
yours only as you also reach out the 
finger of faith. Paul's armor is yours 
only as you engage in Paul's battles. 

To think about the Bible so much that 
we cannot help thinking about it, 
and obey it so heartily that obedience 
becomes a habit, — this is the way to 
make the Bible a help in temptation. 

It is a noble art — that of meditation. 
To start out in the day with some 



the Bible 127 

magnificent thought, like Paul's '' I buffet 
my body." To recur to it, in the inter- 
stices of work and play. To reason with 
ourselves, '' Now, what did Paul mean 
by that ? What experiences led him to 
it? How did he illustrate it? What 
literal meaning has it for me ? What 
spiritual significance? Have I done it? 
Am I doing it ? If not, why not, and 
how can I do it ? " To talk about it 
with one's friends. To look for acci- 
dental sidelights upon it, such as are sure 
to come. To review it all at night, and 
ask God's blessing upon it, and His 
Spirit to lead you still further into its 
truth, — all this is only a hint of the busi- 
ness of meditation. 

And it is a still more noble art, — that 
of obedience. The obedience that 
does not bandy arguments, or palter, or 
postpone. The obedience that hstens 
eagerly and with poised powers. The 
obedience that exults in the authority 
back of the command and is proud of a 
post under it. The obedience that leaps 
and laughs. Our age of silly independ- 
ence knows Httle of this, as, in its silly 
bustle, it knows little of meditation. 

The more one meditates, the better he 
meditates and the more rejoicingly. 
The more one obeys, the better he obeys 
and the more happily. Make but a pur- 
poseful beginning, and you will soon 
make your Bible and your life. 



128 The Bible 

And yet is meditation all ? Are medi- 
tation and obedience all ? Lacking 
one thing, meditation thinks a man into 
no truth, but into the bog. Lacking one 
thing, obedience falls into the first pit of 
despondency. That one thing is the 
presence of the Holy Spirit of God. 

Ever, therefore, as you open the lids of 
your Bible, pray in your deepest 
heart this prayer : — 

IRevealer! (3ulDe! jEncourager! Coriss 
firmer ot purpose anD of power! tTbe 
trutb l0 Z\)\x{c anD ot Cbee, anD ^bou 
alone canet leaD me into it. Z\)c wa^ is 
XTblne anD to G^bee, anD ^bou alone canet 
Direct me In iU Zbc bope is Gbine anD tor 
G^bee, anD ^bou alone canst assure me ot 
It, Mill anD strengtb are ot Gb^ creation, 
tormeD to benD towarD ^bee, anD ilbou 
alone Iftnowest bow to upbolD tbem, Speak 
to me, Untlnlte jfrlenD, out ot tbese leaves 
ot tbe past. /llba!ie eacb one ot tbem vital 
wltb TLb^ voice. /iRal^e eacb one ot tbem 
personal to mi^ neeD. ^a!^e ot tbe tblngs 
ot Cbrlst anD sbow tbem to me. JBe m^ 
memori^t ^bou mlnDtul Spirit ! :fi5e m^ 
teaDlness, ^bou tbat never tallest ! :fiSe wvq 
conttDencCt G^bou tbat seest tbe enD trom 
tbe beginning, anD be^onD tbese tempests 
ot temptation tbe meaDows ot beaven. Hn 
a:b^ name ot majesty anD love. Bmen. 




XV 

Help from Prayer 

AN you be on the water and the 
land at the same time ? Can 
you at the same time rise into 
the ether and fall into the pit? 
No more can you truly pray, 
and, while praying, yield to temptation. 

The physician, as he enters the small- 
pox ward, surrounds himself with an 
atmosphere that is proof against the 
dread disease. Such an atmosphere, 
proof against the hideous peril of sin, is 
prayer. 

You may think that your experience 
disproves this. You may remember 
the many, many times when, with the 
foul breath of sin in your face and its 
polluting fascination luring you on, you 
have panted out, " O God ! Save me, O 
God ! " and yet have gone on sinning. 

But the fact that you have gone on 
sinning proves that you were not 
praying. For no one sins unless he 
wishes to sin ; it is the wish that is the 
sin. And no one prays unless he yearns 
toward God ; that yearning is the prayer. 
And not until light and darkness fill the 

129 



130 Help from 

same space at the same time can the 
human heart seek God and Satan simul- 
taneously. 

It is easy to pretend to pray. It is so 
easy to fool ourselves with our 
prayers ! It is so impossible to deceive 
God! 

Words are not prayer, though from 
night till morning you groan, 
" Deliver me from temptation." Desires 
toward God may not be prayer ; it de- 
pends upon the kind of desires they are. 

It is not prayer to feel ashamed, before 
God and men. It is not prayer to be 
sorry for the consequences of sin. It is 
not prayer to wish release from the con- 
sequences of sin. All three of these 
moods may be upon us even while we 
are sinning, but the praying mood may 
never be upon us while we are sinning. 

For prayer is a reaching out toward 
God ; and toward God is always 
away from sin. 

Do I then make prayer impossible for 
you while you remain a lover of 
sin ? Yes, I do. 

But do you not need prayer to redeem 
you from the love of sin and bring 
you into the love of God ? Yes, you do. 
The natural heart is enmity against God, 
and only supernatural means, only 



Prayer 131 

prayer, can transform it into love of 
God, which is prayer. 

Then do I not make it impossible for 
you to redeem yourself from temp- 
tation and sin through prayer? Pre- 
cisely ; it is impossible. 

Else why the Redeemer ? Else why 
the Cross ? Else why the Interces- 
sion of the Son with the Father ? Else 
why the Groanings of the Holy Spirit, 
pleading for us with unutterable desire? 
Why ? Because we could not, cannot, 
do these things for ourselves. 

Because the drowned man cannot lift 
himself from the bottom of the sea. 
Because the dead soul cannot bring 
itself to life. Prayer is life, and we are 
dead — dead in trespasses and sins. 

You will not appreciate prayer — its 
majesty, its power, its loveliness — 
until you understand the divine origin 
of it. There never was a human prayer, 
however faltering and feeble and brief, 
but was prompted and made possible by 
God. Even the prayer, " Lord, teach us 
to pray ! " is Christ-inspired. 

Is there, then, no merit in our prayers? 
None whatever. The very breath of 
pride, of spiritual complacency, is fatal 
to a prayer. 



132 Help from 

And are prayers, then, accidental? 
Must we wait for God to impel us ? 
Are we prayer automata, mere puppets 
of a worship-seeking Jehovah? And 
how can a prayer make us better if it is 
not spontaneous ? 

Brother, it is ! Nothing in all the 
world is so spontaneous, voluntary, 
independent, as a prayer. It is the con- 
ditions only that God provides, and He 
provides them constantly. Prayer pos- 
sibilities, unceasing and numberless as 
the waves of sunlight. He wraps around 
us. We live — even the worst of us lives 
— in an atmosphere of invitations to 
prayer. 

But we may shut out the sunshine, and 
we may repel these invitations. 
Prayer is communion with God. We 
cannot go to God. God comes hourly 
to us. But we may close our eyes and 
our ears and our lips. 

" Toehold, I stand at the door and 
O knock." That is the Christian's 
call to prayer ! That is the pathos of 
prayer — God's yearning, so often re- 
pulsed. That is the power of prayer, — 
it is based, not on our weak human de- 
sires, but on the desires of an infinite 
God. 

Ship-wrecked soul, storm-beaten and 
despairing ! Arms are around you 
as you sink — arms of the Lord of the 



Prayer J33 

Isles. His harbor is at hand. His pal- 
ace is warm. His feast is bright. Yes, 
His arms are around you as you sink ; 
why do you beat them back ? Lean 
upon them, just lean upon them, and 
that will be prayer. 

The very temptation, the very storm 
and peril of your soul, is an invita- 
tion to prayer. Your very helplessness, 
your hopelessness, is an invitation to 
prayer. The mute terror with which 
you sink among the waves is an invita- 
tion to prayer. For underneath are the 
everlasting arms. 

Prayer is not a wresthng with God, as 
Jacob wrestled with the angel of the 
covenant. Jacob did not so wrestle ; the 
angel wrestled with him. The tempted 
soul, enervated by sin, is too weak to 
Avrestle ; but it is not too weak to cling. 

Learn, then, to trust God for prayer, as 
you trust Him for everything else. 
It would be strange indeed if you could 
not without His help bring a single seed 
to life, while this greatest of all events, 
life-bestowing communion with the Most 
High, you could avail to bring about ! 

And trust God in prayer. That rapt 
devotion, that ecstasy of bliss, that 
assurance of faith, that celestial sweep of 
spirit, which you have read about and 
heard about from God's saints, are gifts 
from God. They may not be for you. 



134 Help from 

God fulfils Himself in many ways. He 
comes to John in clouds of glory. He 
comes to Peter in a cloth full of common 
food. 

In prayer never consider your feelings ; 
prayer is far more real and important 
than your feelings, because prayer is the 
feeling of God. 

You have only two things to know, if 
you would be rescued by prayer 
from your temptations. Your soul must 
be persuaded of the hatefulness of sin 
and of the loveliness of God. And the 
two knowledges are one. 

There are only two motions in the sin- 
ner's prayer, — away from sin, and to- 
ward God. And the two motions are one. 

The problem of prayer, then, is two- 
fold — to learn to hate sin, to learn 
to love God. You may begin at either 
end, or at both ends. 

Only, know this, that if you love sin 
you cannot pray, and if you do not 
love God you cannot pray, and you do 
not love God unless you hate sin. 

Ihave defined prayer as the love of 
God. Do not let men confuse you 
with non-essentials and impertinences, — 
the words of prayer, whether many or 
few, vocal or inaudible; the time of 
prayer, the length of prayer, the fre- 



Prayer 135 

quency of prayer. Love God with all 
your heart, and you will pray perfect 
prayers. You cannot help it. 

Ihave exalted prayer as the specific 
against sin. I have shown its de- 
pendence upon the atonement, how it is 
the atonement, in present, personal 
operation. I have shown how simple it 
is, and how sure. But all this is less 
than the wind among the dry leaves — ■ 
unless we pray. 

Unless we resolve to know God, and to 
know sin no more. Unless, though 
we have only a fibre of strength, we use 
it to turn us away from sin. Unless, 
though we have only the fragment of a 
desire for purity, we nourish that frag- 
ment. Unless, though we can see but 
the dim outline of God, we press toward 
that imperfect vision, and, though we 
can hear only a few words of His great 
voice, we answer what we hear. 

Begin to pray. Begin now to pray. 
Rather, accept the beginning of 
prayer that has always existed from God 
toward you. 

Nothing else so large as prayer grows 
from so small a seed. Prayer is a 
bit of worthless paper presented at a 
great bank by a pauper — presented, and 
honored for a princely fortune ! 



136 Help from 

Have no thought of your worth or 
your worthlessness. Forget your 
sins, as you forget your virtues. Forget 
even, if it is possible, the temptations 
against which you pray. Forget every- 
thing, but God. 

As a preparation for prayer, crowd 
your hfe with thoughts of God. 
Yonder cloud — God impels it. This 
tree — God built it. My hand — God 
fashioned it, in likeness to His hand. 
A slice of bread — thank Thee, Father! 
Some one's merry smile — that was a re- 
flection from God's face. 

Read about God, study about God, 
talk about God, hear about God, 
meditate on God, persistently, systemat- 
ically, and lavishly, as a preparation for 
prayer. 

Yet do not wait for any preparation. 
Begin to pray. Begin now to pray. 
Think of God, waiting to talk with you. 
Remember who He is — the invisible 
Creator of all seen things, the unfailing 
Upholder of all trustful things. Supreme 
of supremacies, Origin of wisdom, Lovei* 
of lovers. And remember that, whether 
your heart turns toward Him or not. His 
is always eagerly pulsing for you. 

Oh, with your contrition, with your 
despair of yourself, with your dread 
of the future, chained to sin as you are 



Prayer 137 

and kissing your chains, and loathing 
yourself as you kiss, ought it to be hard 
to pray, you as you are, and God as 
He is? 

It need not be a grand prayer, but only 
a simple one and short : — 

Dear afatbcr, wbat am IT, tbat ^bou 
eboulDet let me tallft wttb n:bee ! "fft is tor 
Zhcc to 6a^ bow long 1F 6ball bear ^bee, 
anD bow close 11 sball come to C^bee^ 1bow 
weal; H am Z\>o\x l^nowest, bow DepraveD^ 
ir will not tell G^bee, tor ^bou Iftnowest* 
^ell me bow strong Q^bou art, bow pure* 
Sing to m^ 60ul tbe trlumpb ot tbe Cross* 
Ht a:bou woulDst ablDe wltb ^accba^ue^ 
60 wltb me* 1Ft ^bou woulDst recel\>e a 
sinner's ointment, recel\?e mine* irt ^bou 
woulDst tarr^ wltb tbe Samaritan, sit big 
me at tbe well* irt XTbou DlC)st come to 
seeli anD to save tbe lost, come now to me* 
J6ven so come, XorD S^esus* Bmen* 




XVI 

Help from Out-of-Doors 

AM writing this upon a hilltop. 
There is spread before me a 
sunny expanse, stretching for 
many miles, and crowded with 
the beauties of God. There is 
the near slope of grass, gay with aster 
and goldenrod. Below, there are trees 
and bushes, tangles of green hung with 
scarlet berries and purple beach-plums. 
Beyond, there is the sparkling blue of 
the ocean, broken up by the daintiest of 
islands. Above, a flawless heaven. 

Motion is here, the swaying branches, 
the bending grassblades, the long 
marching of the waves, their bayonets 
glittering in the sun. Fragrance is here, 
of the pines and of the salt sea. Color 
is here, all the kaleidoscopic hues of 
autumn. Sound is here, the shrill mon- 
otone of crickets, the varied greetings 
of the wind, the dropping notes of a song 
sparrow. Form is here, no two alike of 
leaf or flower or bird or wave. And all 
— motion, fragrance, color, sound, and 
form — all are subdued to a single har- 
mony, pervasive and persuasive ; which 
must be the thought of God. 

138 



Oat'of-Doors 139 

While I am here upon this hill of 
splendor, how far from my mind is 
the thought of sin ! The ocean has 
washed it all away, the sunlight has 
laughed it away, the birds have sung it 
away, the breezes have borne it off on 
viewless pinions, and if a hint of it were 
left, the pure loveliness that surges around 
me would overwhelm it, forty fathoms 
deep. 

I am not tempted to sin while I am in 
the woods, or under the solemn stars. 
By a long walk or a long row I can dis- 
tance any temptation. A day with God 
among the mountains energizes me for 
many a day with Satan in the city. 

But may not God be found in the city 
and under roofs ? Assuredly, yes. 
And is God always found among the 
hills ? Assuredly, no. The heart is 
God's home, and not the ocean or the 
forest. Sin, and not a brick wall, sepa- 
rates us from God. 

And is not the church God's house, 
where He loves best to be found ? 
Though '' the woods were God's first 
temples," are they His latest and best? 
Assuredly, though God dwells not in 
temples made with hands, and the meet- 
ing-house stones are no more sacred than 
hearthstones, yet where two or three are 
gathered in His name, Christ is in the 
midst. 



140 Help from 

It is those that find God most in the 
church that most find Him out of the 
church. Jehovah has no quarrel with 
Himself, Mount Zion with Olivet. The 
wise man will seek God everywhere, and 
the tempted man must. 

Examining my own life and the lives 
of others, I find that the devil is 
sedentary. He hates the open. He loves 
darkness rather than light, and rooms 
rather than sky. He closes the win- 
dows. He clogs the feet with leather 
and binds the lungs with steel and silk. 
He invents gluttony and sofas. Out-of- 
doors is too wide and sweet for him. 

Review your temptations and your sins 
of the past. Have you yielded and 
fallen when penetrated with the cheery 
sunshine, or was it under the shallow rays 
of gas and electricity ? Has the sin mas- 
tered you when your lungs were cramrned 
with the ozone of the shore, or when 
they were smothered in the heavy air of 
a ballroom ? Have evil fancies made 
nests in your brain after an hour of 
woodland rambles among the birds, or 
after an hour's reading of some incestu- 
ous tale ? 

Out-of-doors is energetic. God's world 
is at work. From ant to oak, from 
rivulet to cloud, from violet to mountain, 
all is activity. Those that live much in 



Out-of-Doors 141 

the open catch the mighty pulse-beat of 
God. 

What an ally is physical ardor in the 
contest with sin ! Pure blood is 
not unrelated to a pure heart. A strong 
circulation has to do with a sturdy con- 
secration. Stout muscles help hft the 
soul over spiritual bogs, and a good con- 
stitution has some connection with a 
good conscience. 

Out-of-doors is pure. Human picture 
galleries reek with poisonous sug- 
gestions, but you might tread forever the 
majestic corridors of the woods, and find 
no curve, no color, no glimpse, that min- 
isters to passion. Human music is often 
sensuous, but the music of the forest, the 
sea, and the sky is an echo of the music 
in heaven. Human libraries have pre- 
served the baseness as well as the nobil- 
ity of men, but every page of the book 
of nature is white and sweet. 

Why pray, '* Lead me not into temp- 
tation," while you turn your feet 
where temptation has many times assailed 
you ? The woods are safe, the crowds 
are unsafe. You know how sHght a 
spark will kindle the red fire within you. 
Why live among blazing torches ? 

Out-of-doors is peaceful. Even the 
raging of a tempest is a calm beside 
a frenzied soul. As I write, the sun is 
sinking across the bay. The ocean re- 



H2 Help from 

ceives in motionless reverence his final 
benediction. The birds are hushed and 
the breezes are still. This hilltop must be 
a terraced altar, and spirits innumerable 
are kneeling around me. Now it is over. 
The processional of the day has passed, 
and night has entered upon her tender 
ritual. 

It is over, yet it is not over. The ma- 
jestic ceremonial has entered my 
heart. It has filled it, and will abide. 
While it remains, there will be no room 
for devils. 

And the world has so many hilltops ! 
Room upon them for all earth's 
tempted milhons ! For the sun can be 
seen from any street, and the stars from 
any window, and there is no level of 
earth but is a promontory into the uni- 
verse. 

Christ was preaching to an out-of-door 
people. Most of His disciples were 
fishermen. Most of His discourses were 
spoken on hilltops, in meadows, on the 
streets, or by the sea. Most of them 
were applications and interpretations of 
nature. His miracles were not parlor 
miracles or sickroom miracles. He did 
not bid His followers live much in the 
open air, because He did not need to. 
Most men so lived in that day and 
country. 



Out-of-Doors 143 

What is true of Christ's teachings is 
true of the entire Bible. It is a 
book of the fields, the mountains, river, 
lake, and sky. It does not preach out- 
door hfe, because, in almost every page, 
it presupposes it. 

And I am sure that Christ, if He were 
to return in the flesh to our modern 
world, would urge upon men, as one of 
the needful steps away from temptation 
and sin, a simpler hfe. '^ Ye turn night 
into day," He would exclaim, '' and day 
into night. Your bodies, temples of the 
Holy Spirit, ye have imprisoned in ef- 
feminacy, luxury, and indolence. Ye 
barter the sky for a ceiling, sunshine for 
a lamp, the league-long sweep of the 
wind for a ventilator. The earth was 
given you to possess. Ye mortgage it, 
and bury yourselves in your counting- 
rooms. Ye have built up an artificial 
life, and loaded yourselves with artificial 
needs. Ye have set up in every city a 
thousand shrines for Satan. Ye have in- 
vented temptations that not even he has 
discovered. And your lives have grown 
so complex, so hurried, so selfish, and so 
anxious, that they have no time to fight 
the devil or worship God." 

Somewhat thus, I think, our Lord 
would speak His rebuke. And I 
think He would add a command like 
this : ** O ye weary and heavy-laden, 
raise no heavier burdens than nature 



144 Help from 

binds upon you ! O ye tempted ones, 
ye spirits softened with insidious wiles, 
ye men that are slaves to a fraction of 
your being or a fragment of the w^orld, 
break your bonds, and live out in the 
largeness of God ! Learn anew the ele- 
mental pleasures. Breathe in the calm- 
ness of the seasons. Subdue your am- 
bitions to the day, and test your passions 
by the stars. Spread out your thoughts 
along the meadows, that air and sun may 
whiten them. Join the anthem of praise 
that rises from the whole creation. Be 
a man, as simply, truly, and cheerily as a 
sparrow is a sparrow or a rose a rose. 
See God without you as well as within 
you, and without you that you may see 
Him within you. For the world is not 
God, but it is God's, and formed to show 
you the Father." 

And this command, my brother in 
temptation, which is Christ's, I am 
sure, as sure as if it were written in the 
Bible itself, — how shall we go about to 
obey it ? How shall we gain, for our 
struggle with temptation, the aid of God 
in nature ? 

Not without time. We must be con- 
tent with shorter money-getting, 
briefer book-revels, fewer indoor delights. 
We must measure our beds by our needs, 
and not by our desires. We must plan 
for out-of-doors, reserve time for it, in- 



Out-of-Doors 145 

troduce method and system, and count it 
a first claim upon our twenty-four hours. 

Not without pains. Out-of-doors is not 
to be wooed from a rocking chair or 
a landau. Out-of doors is often cold and 
dark and wet. Before the mountain-top 
is the toilsome ascent, before the sunrise 
the leap from a warm bed, before the 
inner mysteries of the forest are swamps 
and thickets. 

Not without patience. Nature does 
not blab her secrets to every comer. 
She demands long waitings at her shrine. 
Especially, if one comes late to her, with 
his senses worn by the grinding of 
worldliness, is she loth to reveal her 
deeper charms. 

But whoever, with simple confidence in 
God and the desire to know Him 
better, with absolute horror of sin and 
the desire to escape from temptation into 
purity, will live much out-of-doors, into 
his life will come, soon or late, a sturdy 
peace and a vital purity that will renovate 
it wholly, and present it clean and strong 
for the indwelhng of God. 

But I have said that one must go to 
nature in the love of God. One 
must see in nature more than the natural, 
or no help will come for the supernatural 
conflict with evil. A tree is a dead 
thing ; a tree with the thought of Christ 
is a hfe-giving thing. 



146 Out-of-Doors 

So that here, too, in the beautiful, brave 
out-of-doors, we set up our oratory 
and pray our prayer : — 

(3oD ot nature ! Qbxietf tbe revealer ot 
(5oD in nature ! 1boli2 Spirit, wbo art Dail^ 
taking ot tbe tbinge ot Cbrist, in eea, an& 
air, anD forest ae well as in tbe :fiSooft, anD 
ebowing tbem to trusting bearte,— 1F worss 
6bip G^bee, one 60D, in all Zb>Q torme an^ 
persons! O^be loveli^ eartb is so tull ot 
C^bee! BnD everi^wbere XLb^ tulness is 
grace, anD purity, anD strengtb^ Zlbese 
presences Destroi^ rn>Q evil passions and 
cleanse m^ lite from its impurit^^ 11 woulD 
ftnow ttbee more, anD more perfectl^^ 1F 
woulD live witb ilbee more, anO more 
beartili2» 1ftot to sbun m^ Outis among 
men, but tbat 11 ma^ Do it better, IT woulD 
sometimes go awai^ from men» %nb wben 
If see a cbarm in clouD or brooli or copse, IT 
sball remember tbat tbe Creator is tairer 
stilL BnD wben from ocean or meaD or 
mountain crest tbe peace ot nature steals 
into m^ troubled soul, 11 sball remember 
tbat it is onl^ tbe outer tringe ot Cbrist's 
garment of peace, wbicb tbe worlD cannot 
gi\?e or ta?;e awai2» G^o tbat peace, tbrougb 
all XLb^ blesseD agencies, conDuct me, © 
m^ Saviour, anD all Zb^ tempteD cbilDren^ 
amen^ 




XVII 

Help from Recreation 

ECREATION " means " re- 
creation," and surely that is 
what the tempted soul needs. 
*' Create in me a clean heart, 
O God, and renew a right 
spirit within me/' 

To be renewed in mind, the old desires 
taken away and new desires substi- 
tuted, holy, strong, and happy, — for this 
every tempted man longs, though often 
unconsciously. 

But not every recreation re-creates. 
Some are named in folly. Call not 
that a recreation from which you come 
with aching eyes, burning head, frantic 
pulse, languid muscles, seared soul. Call 
not that a re-creation which discreates. 

Indeed, it seems like mockery to point 
a tempted man to recreation as a medi- 
cine, while within so many sports lurks the 
very poison of temptation from which he 
flees. 

Nevertheless it is true that thousands 
of men go the devil's way for lack 
of innocent amusements. " All work 

147 



148 Help from 

and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and 
often a sinful one. 

When a spring is wound up all the 
time it soon loses its tension, and 
the machine it controls works poorly. 
That masterful machine, the body, has 
one mastering need, relaxation. So is it 
with the supreme machine, the soul. 

Satan exults in tension, — the fierce 
stress of passion, pride, lust, greed, 
ambition, hatred, fear, worry. Satan 
never unbends. He does not know how 
to play. The lord of '' gaming," a true 
game is a mystery to him. As soon as 
the devil gets into an amusement — for 
proof look where you will — it becomes 
hard work, and dis-creating. 

This, then, is the decisive test of a rec- 
reation : does it re-create ? Does 
one come from it with rested nerves, 
fresh enthusiasm for work, new joy in 
life, restored fellowship with men, and a 
spirit washed clean for converse with 
God ? All this — in differing measure — 
true recreation will effect. The precise 
opposite of all this a false recreation will 
certainly bring about. 

Oh, the blessedness of games ! Happy 
is the man who has his quiver full 
of them ! Each is a very pointed arrow, 
aimed sure at the breast of moroseness, 
gloom, and laxity, and driving them 
headlong to their holes ! 



Recreation 149 

Some men who are called very good 
cannot play games. Inveigled into 
an hour with dominoes, draughts, or chess, 
with tiddledywinks, crokinole, halma, or 
ping-pong, while others roar with 
laughter, their stiff lips unbend only in a 
sarcastic sneer. Such ado over bits of 
wood or empty rubber balls ! 

Do you know, I question the goodness 
of such men. I wonder if, back of 
their austere uprightness, there does not 
lurk some eating sin. And anyway, if 
this uncharitable suspicion is altogether 
false, I am sure that their attitude toward 
recreation gives Satan a ready opening 
for his shafts of temptation. 

Why is it that a man is more easily 
tempted if he does not play ? Be- 
cause his mind, never healthfully unbend- 
ing, lacks the force needed to ward off 
temptation. Because his mind, untrained 
in the bright fencing of games, lacks the 
alertness needed for the combat with 
temptation. Because his spirit, un- 
smoothed with the peace that is born 
of relaxation, is seized upon more readily 
by the devil's hooks. 

"Out," say some objectors, "are not 
O these qualities — force, alertness, 
peace — the product of religion? And 
do you not discredit rehgion when you 
send us to recreation for them? If a 
man has the companionship of God, 
does he need any other recreation ? '* 



150 Help from 

Ah, my brothers, how you narrow re- 
Hgion to a pew-width ! Why, if 
you follow Christ, you must go to Cana 
festivities, to feasts with publicans and 
sinners ! The writings of Paul himself — 
think of it ! — are not devoid of the pun. 
For example, on that most serious sub- 
ject, " so to think as to think .s-^^-berly ! " 
Through all centuries the great preachers 
have left behind them as many exhila- 
rating anecdotes as uplifting sermons. 

Recreation is a part of my religion. 
The two words are alike. Re-ligion 
is a re-Hgature, a binding of the soul 
back to God, just as re-creation is a re- 
fashioning of the soul in the image of 
God wherein it was created. ** Recre- 
ation " is a better name for the fact than 
*' religion " itself. The church is missing 
a prime duty as well as a choice oppor- 
tunity, when it takes toward recreation a 
position merely negative and prohibitory, 
and not positive and constructive. 

Amusement serves many religious pur- 
poses, and none more important than 
this defeat of temptation. An evening 
of innocent fun is valid insurance against 
an impure night. A burst of merry 
laughter is deadly artillery against the 
hosts of hell. 

Happy the man who is catholic in 
amusements. Learn to like all inno- 
cent games. Play *' feathers " with the 



Recreation 151 

little children, and croquet with the 
maidens and young men, and chess with 
Granther Brown. One needs to play so 
much and the chances to play are so 
few, that the wise man will accept any 
happy invitation. 

But though you play many games, se- 
lect a few for mastery. " No profit 
goes where there's no pleasure ta'en," 
and no pleasure is taken in uniform de- 
feat, any more than in uniform and too 
easy victory. Become a proud expert in 
golf or tennis, in cycling or canoeing, in 
photography or microscopy, in chess or 
checkers. 

And you must be an expert in more 
than one game ; select two, the first 
for daylight and outdoors and the body, 
the second for indoors and evening and 
the mind. Tennis and chess make a 
good combination, according to my 
thinking ; or cycHng and — crokinole. 

Yes, and the outdoor recreation must 
be more than one, unless the one can 
be played in all weathers and at all times 
of the year, — hke that noble recreation, 
walking. 

What I want to insist upon is a plan, 
method, system. Haphazard rec- 
reation is as Vv^itless as haphazard crea- 
tion. You have two razors, and rest one 
for half the time. Can you not be as 



152 Help from 

prudent with those keenest of all edged 
tools, your body and your mind? 

Play must be planned for as well as 
work. It is not obtained, in this 
workaday world, unless it is planned for. 
And to little purpose, m the end, is your 
planning for work unless you also plan 
for play. 

Jt will need patience and perseverance. 
I have named no amusement — I could 
not name a healthful amusement — that 
would not seem tame and stale to a soul 
that is fevered with sin. How flat is 
milk to the drunkard ! 

But let reason reign. Believe others 
when they tell you of the delights of 
this sport and that. Perceive the purity 
and buoyancy it gives them. Take your 
play as medicine till you can take it with 
an appetite. Here also is the realm of 
faith. 

So far as possible, interest others in 
your recreation. This, primarily, be- 
cause the fight with temptation is a soli- 
tary one, and is little helped by games 
of solitaire. And, secondarily, because 
leadership in games is a worthy leader- 
ship, deserving of any one's ambition. 

Not only walk, then, but form a Per- 
ipatetic Brotherhood. Not only play 
tennis, but organize tennis tournaments. 



Recreation 1 53 

Not only study out chess problems, but 
teach chess to all your neighbors, and 
have regular chess evenings at your 
home, with cake and lemonade ! In the 
battle with temptation you need every 
ally. 

I am not urging you to make fun of 
Satan or make light of temptation. 
Satan soon proves that he is not to be 
trifled with, and no one fights temptation 
long and ever thinks of it shudderiess. 

No, I do not ask you to make Hght of 
temptation, but to make it heavy, to 
weigh it down with neglect so that it 
will sink miles deep in the black sea of 
forgetfulness ! Make light of your rec- 
reation, or rather, let it make you light, 
as if it were a life-buoy, floating you to 
safety and the shore ! 

For health is happy. Disease, though 
it rave with insane merriment, is ter- 
ribly sad. Health is buoyant. Disease 
is sodden. Purity sparkles. Impurity 
glowers. Heaven sings. Hell groans 
eternally. 

Do not be deceived by the devil's 
comic mask. He has a rubber face 
like a clown's. He can feign mirth al- 
most to perfection. He can flash fire 
on the waters of Phlegethon till one for- 
gets their blackness of despair. 



154 Recreation 

For every innocent recreation the devil 
has a counterfeit, a discreation. Look 
under the surface. Consider results. Go- 
ing to sport for freedom from tempta- 
tion, do not let it add to your chains. 

Here also, as everywhere else, we need 
the clear vision of prayer. Let us 
pray at our play as at our work. 

Creator, ZXaow onl^ TRecreator! Ibol^ 
Spirit, wbo alone art Inepiritfng ! Cbrt6t of 
tbe weDDtng feaet, wbo came tbat ^bi5 joi^ 
migbt be in us anD filleD tuU! 1bere is a 
6oul outworn wttb sin, etltfeneD wttb tbe 
cruet ot lt6 corruption, DepraveD witb its 
abanDoneO taetea, tbe reality ot bappinese 
forgotten in tbe maD pretence ot it* © 
Cbri6t, 1F am a leper, m^ brigbter, tairer 
faculties Decai^eD, eaten awa^ witb tbe 
corrosion of iniquitis* :But a;bou canst 
beal lepers ; beal even me* JFrom tbe 
stumps eytenD new members* SpreaO 
sounD flesb over tbe festering sores* 
^brougb tbewbite pall of Deatb irradiate 
tbe tlusb of a bealtbi^ pulse* Cause me to 
run anD sbow mi^self to tbe priest, pure, 
anD wbole, anD bapp^* tTbou wbo art 
Oaili5 working just sucb miracles* G^bou 
wbose ligbt avails against all Dar?mess, anD 
purlti2 against an^ corruption* C^bou all* 
attentive, always eager Cbrlst! ITn ttbis 
beautiful, glaD name* Bmen* 




XVIII 

Help from Confession 

LL sins are secret sins. All temp- 
tations abhor confession. In- 
deed, the fear of confession is 
itself the climax of tempta- 
tion. 

We can endure the hidden shame, but 
not the open shame. Though 
evermore we must know ourselves as 
weak and foolish, corrupt and tending to 
corruption, it seems that it would add a 
deeper blackness to our degradation if 
others knew it also. 

Yet with this shrinking from confession 
comes a strange impulsion toward 
it. *' Murder will out." As soon as any 
sin is committed, a bell begins to ring in 
the sinner's soul : " Tell it ! Tell it ! 
Tell it ! Tell ! " It is one of the voices 
of God. 

A sin is such a heavy secret to bear 
alone ! If one only had a comrade 
to lift the little end of it ! Temptation is 
such a terrible battle to fight alone ! If 
one only had a comrade to join the 
battle-cry, to touch elbows in the march, 
to whisper behind the barricade ! 

155 



156 Help from 

And always there is an inevitable sense 
of justice demanding publicity for 
sin. Because, though the sin was done 
in the recesses of midnight, its results 
stare out in the eye of noon. Because 
there never was a sin, however personal, 
but injures others. Many others. A 
constantly radiating multitude of others. 
Poor reparation, indeed, that they should 
know who has harmed them ; but we feel 
it their due that we should groan, ** It 
was I. Oh, it was I ! " 

Doubtless there never was a sinner, 
though his whole being shrank from 
the shame of his sin, but longed with 
agony after confession. A confession 
that he felt would relieve the terrible, 
lonely tension. A confession that would 
begin to set him right with God and 
man. A confession that he did not dare. 

Yet a confession that he knew God 
wanted. A confession that would 
prelude forgiveness. For do not the 
hearts of all sinners ceaselessly moan, '' If 
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness " ? Moaning it 
because they must add, ** And I dare not 
fulfil the condition." 

Oh, my brother in temptation and sin, 
you dare fulfil the condition ! It is 
a difficult condition, but you will not 
think so. 



Confession 157 

For did not the Psalmist truly cry, 
" Against Thee, Thee only, have I 
sinned " ? He who had sinned so griev- 
ously against man. *' I acknowledge my 
transgressions," David cries, '' and my sin 
is ever before me. Wash me thoroughly 
from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from 
my sin." 

'* A h, that is indeed easy," you sigh, re- 
^ lieved. " I am not afraid to con- 
fess my sins to God. I confess them 
continually. Indeed, He knows them 
already. How could I keep them from 
Him?" 

Brother ! if you think it easy to con- 
fess your sins to God, you know 
neither God nor confession. 

Saying to God in secret prayer, though 
you move your Hps, though you 
speak audibly, '' God, I have sinned thus 
and so," is not confession. '' Behold, 
Thou desirest truth in the inward parts," 
David acknowledges in the same Psalm. 
It must be a confession of the heart, if it 
is a confession to God. 

What is a heart confession of sin ? It 
is an honest vision of our degradar 
tion — and more. It is a terrified recog- 
nition of our danger — and more. It is 
an absolute loathing of our sin — and 
more. It is an entire admission of de- 
feat. 



158 Help from 

Is this easy ? Have you, with all your 
prayers, yet attained to it? Does 
not pride still hold a secret throne in 
your soul? And does not self-love sit 
by his side? Do you really hate your 
sin ? Do you honestly even fear it ? If 
you could commit it daily, unseen by 
God or man and secure against punish- 
ment in time or eternity, would you not 
commit it daily ? 

Is heart confession easy? Ah, though 
our prayers say *^ Miserable sinner," 
our thoughts add, '' V m not so bad, after 
all ; I 'm no worse than others ; I mean 
well ; really, it is n't every one that would 
be conscientious enough to have any 
inner struggles at all." 

Is heart confession easy? Ah, though 
our prayers say, " Save me, O God," 
our thoughts add, " Nothing has hap- 
pened, so far, or very little; I've done 
enough good to more than balance the 
rest ; it will all come right in the end." 

Is heart confession easy ? Ah, though 
our prayers say, *' I can do nothing, I 
am nothing, without Thee, O God," our 
lives go on in acted independence. Our 
thoughts say, ** I can stop when I really 
make the effort. I have stopped already 
many — many times. I will stop for the 
last time — to-morrow." 



Confession 159 

No, no, no ! It is easier to stand in the 
market and proclaim one's sin, in 
all its detail of shame to proclaim it, 
easier to write it out and send it to the 
pubHc press, easier to disclose it to all 
men everywhere, than truly in one's 
heart of hearts to abandon it. 



And this heart confession must be 
made to God ! Witless and bhnd is 
he that calls this easy ! 

Confess — to God ! Have you ever so 
much as come into God's presence ? 
You will have had no doubt of it. You 
will have taken off your shoes on that 
holy ground. You will have covered 
your eyes against that blinding light. 
You will have hidden in a cave. You 
will have fallen at His feet as one dead. 
You will have said, " Depart from me, 
for I am a sinful man, O Lord ! " or you 
will have said, '' Lord, it is good for me 
to be here ! " or you will have said, 
'* Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " 

The presence of God ! Have you ever 
stood abashed before an innocent 
babe, or a pure, sweet maiden, or a 
mother haloed with divine love ? The 
presence of God is the presence of purity 
absolute, purity of which the lily is a 
shadow, and the whitest life ever lived is 
only its dim reflection. 



i6o Help from 

The presence of God ! Has the thun- 
der never appalled you ? the down- 
rush of Niagara, the black energy of a 
tornado, the crashing devastation of vol- 
cano or earthquake ? The presence of 
God is the presence of primal force, the 
uncomprehended person of all power, 
from whom at a thought could burst the 
annihilation of the universe. 

The presence of God! Gather into 
one every form of loveliness upon 
which your eye has rested, every splen- 
dor of majesty, every attribute of genius ; 
concentrate within the compass of your 
room whatever grandeur you have seen, 
in the heavens or throughout the varied 
earth ; reach backward to the most dis- 
tant eons and forward to the limit of 
time and outward to the bounds of space 
and draw it all to one focus ; magnify 
and intensify your conception endlessly, 
by as much as the infinite excels our 
finite understanding ; call this Being be- 
fore you, and confess your sin ! 

Will it be easy to confess to God ? 
Will it be easy, standing in that 
supernal Light, to lay bare your hideous- 
ness ? Will any pretence of confession 
avail there ? any mask of repentance ? 
any self-delusion of virtue and strength ? 

This is the real, the basal, confession. 
No confession before men is more 
than words, often proud words, often 



Confession 161 

flaunting, shameless words, till confession 
has thus been made before God. 

And after one has thus confessed to 
God, after he has come to realize 
what his sin is and what his God is and 
with a shrinking of great shame has 
brought the two together, confession be- 
fore man, any man, all men, is oh, so 
easy! 

As it would be easy, having gazed at 
the noonday sun, to gaze at a lighted 
candle ; or having lain on the surgeon's 
table, to endure the sting of a mosquito ; 
or having been on trial before a king, to 
meet the inquiries of one's neighbor. 

s it was with David, who, after his 
great temptation and deadly fall, 
wrote his psalm of repentance " For the 
Chief Musician." '^ Create in me a clean 
heart," he cried : '' Then will I teach 
transgressors Thy ways!' '' Deliver me 
from bloodguiltiness," he cried : '' And 
my mouth shall show forth Thy praise!' 

It may not be best to confess to men. 
Men do not always know our frame, 
and remember that we are dust. Men 
do not always remember their own sins, 
but seek solace from them in remember- 
ing the sins of their neighbors. Men 
can see at the most only a fragment of 
your character, only the outlines of your 
temptation. It may be better for the 



A 



i62 Help from 

world, and your influence in it, that the 
world know nothing about your sin. 

When a dear one dies, or even a kindly 
acquaintance, I, for one, avoid 
looking upon his dead face. He is still 
alive, and I wish to think of him as ahve 
and not as dead. So let us beware, those 
of us who have been dead in trespasses 
and sins and are now alive again in 
Christ Jesus, lest we needlessly and to no 
purpose expose the face of our corrup- 
tion. 

But it may be better for the world that 
we confess our sins before men. 
Not seldom, by such a confession, a man 
does more good than by years of appar- 
ently flawless living. This is because an 
example of humility is better than an 
example of righteousness, and the spec- 
tacle of a man being saved is more than 
the sight of a thousand men that need no 
saving. 

Often, too, the confession of our sins 
to one man, if not to many men, is 
an essential of salvation. For his own 
purposes, God often chooses to save 
through men. It may not be best for you 
to receive healing by the secret, direct in- 
fluence of His Spirit, though in all sin- 
cerity you confess your sins in His pres- 
ence. The Good Physician may have 
placed His remedies in the hands of some 
friend. 



Confession 163 

Seek, then, the salvation of friendship ! 
There is a man who can bear your 
sin. Your confession will only bind him 
more closely to you. He will watch 
over you. He will show you his ow^n 
sins. He will help you by letting you 
help him. He will raise you if you slip 
back into the ditch. He w411 question 
you. The knowledge that he will ques- 
tion you, that you must report to him, 
that he will know your renewal of sin, 
will be your mighty safeguard in temp- 
tation. He will be to you what Nathan 
was to David. 

It is for you to know whether confession 
before a man, before all men, is re- 
quired from you or is best for you and 
others ; rather, it is for you to learn this 
from God. Of this alone I am sure, that 
you must confess to God, and that you 
will know whether you have really con- 
fessed to God by this test, that after it 
confession before men will be easy. 

® m^ (5oD ! ever^tbing 10 so eae^ wben IT 
bring XLhcc Into it ! JEveri^tbing l6 60 barD 
wben 1F leave XTbee out ot It ! aforgetttng 
Cbee l9 to stumble anD tall ; remembering 
Ubee \6 to rise again* jf orgettlng G:bee I0 
to go bungris among tbe swine ; remembers^ 
ing ^bee Is to come to one's selt ; to sa^, 
*' IF will arise anD go to m^ jfatber, anD 
will sa^ to 1blm, * jf atber , 11 bave slnneD ' ''; 
anD It Is tor tbe jf atber to run toward us 



164 Confession 

wbile a great wa^ oft, anD tall on our necft 
anD 1^160 U6, atiD witb Ibie klsees interrupt 
our conteseion* Cbou art /llbajeetiSt © 
©oD ; ^bou art IPower anD justice anD ter^ 
rible IPurtt^; but ^bou art aleo JFatber* 
BnD 0Ot wretcbeD anD toul ae H am, traitor 
anD rebel as IF am, outcast anD conDemneD 
as ir am, 1F Dare to stanD betore XTbee^ If 
Do not even tall at ^b^ teet, tor ^bou— ob, 
infinite conDescension !— bast tallen upon 
xtvQ necft^ witb ftisses, 




XIX 

Help from Conscience 

OUR conscience is a disturbance, 
an annoyance, a condemnation ; 
but is it a help ? It shames 
you, but does it thwart you? 
Perhaps it checks your fall ; but 
does it draw you upward ? 

For conscience is more than an alarm 
bell, arousing the slumbering soul. 
It is more than a danger signal, warning 
us from the abyss. It is more than a 
herald, marching up and down the 
avenues of the heart, and making proc- 
lamation of our sin and disgrace. Con- 
science is a friend. 

A friend, to counsel us. A friend, to 
whisper comfort and courage. A 
friend, to take our hand and lead the 
way. A friend, to talk Avith in loneli- 
ness, and often more blessedly to sit with 
in silence. Not an enemy, not a tyrant, 
not a pedagogue, but a friend. 

Is our conscience, then, something out- 
side us ? No ; for does it not speak 
most loudly when all outside is still? 
Or, is our conscience our own nature ? 
No, indeed ; for often it urgently opposes 

165 



i66 Help from 

our own nature. Is it the voice of God 
speaking to us ? No, for we do not pray 
to our conscience, though conscience 
often impels us to prayer. What is this 
mysterious, intangible person or sub- 
stance ? 

We should find it less difficult to recog- 
nize the triune nature of God if 
we recognized with more insight the 
multiform nature of man. Paul saw that 
he was two Pauls. One delighted in 
God's law, the other brought his life into 
captivity to the law of sin and death. 
The two Pauls warred constantly with 
each other, and only Christ, who was 
neither Paul, could give the victory to 
the right one. 

And Paul wrote to the PhiHppians, 
'' Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus " ; and to the 
Corinthians, ** We have the mind of 
Christ.'^ 



w 



hat is it to have the mind of 
Christ? 



See an inventor put his mind into his 
machine. In our office is a wonder- 
ful steel cylinder, whirling swiftly. A 
girl sits before it, playing lightly upon a 
set of keys ; and as her fingers touch the 
well-poised levers the types fall in a 
shower upon the revolving disk, array 
themselves in words, erect themselves, 
and march out in ordered sentences ! 



Conscience 167 

Moreover, to take the place of the used 
types, the machine feeds into itself the 
columns of last week's paper, lays hold 
upon each separate type of all the con- 
fused myriads, and conducts it through 
the intricacy of openings to the slot 
where its comrades lie. 

The machine is thinking. It is the 
solidified idea of its inventor. It is 
the continuance of his inspiration, his pa- 
tience, and his skill. The inventor lives 
somewhere else, but he also veritably 
lives in our printing room. We have 
the mind of him. 

And this is none the less true because 
his mind does not always work 
smoothly. It meets many a clog. One 
of the falling types will have a bit of wax 
upon it, and will fall an atom too slowly. 
One of the marching types will be twisted 
a trifle in its channel. There will be a 
crunch of metal, the band will sHp, the 
cylinder will stop, and the girl's fingers 
play now to no purpose. We have the 
mind of the inventor, but we have also 
the mind of sticky types. And the two 
are at war. 

We receive a letter from the inventor, 
telling us how to manage the ma- 
chine more perfectly. The other day 
his representative or agent came in, and 
showed us much about it. Some day, 
perhaps, we shall have a visit from the 



i68 Help from 

inventor himself, and that will be best 
of all. Yet continually, day after day in 
our office, we have the inventor's mind. 

And to have the mind of Christ ! Of 
Him without whom was nothing 
made that was made. Of Him who was 
in the beginning with God, and was God. 
Of Him in whom dwells the fulness of 
God. 

To have the mind of Christ ! That 
knows all origins, natures, and des- 
tinies. That pierces midnight as if it 
were daylight and mysteries as if they 
w^ere axioms. That falters not on any 
path or before any barrier. 

To have the mind of Christ ! The 
mind whose lightest resources are 
space-wide and time-long. The mind 
that, owning all things, dares all things. 
The only mind that never thought defeat. 

To have the mind of Christ ! The in- 
tellect that is all sunshine ; of which, 
indeed, the sunlight is only a reflection. 
The thought that is serenity and peace. 

To have the mind of Christ ! That 
consciousness wherein no foulness 
ever dwelt. Those breathings of purity, 
so clear, so sweet. That infinite sea of 
uncontaminated thought. 



I 



s it possible ? Nay ; can it be other 
than this ? Has the Allwise Inventor 



Conscience 169 

left no mind in His creation ? No pro- 
longation and witness of Himself? Then 
He would be less than the inventors He 
has made. 

No ; in every loathing of the wrong 
and impulse toward the right, in 
every sorrow for sin and shame at a fall, 
in every debate before temptation, and 
even in the quiet, monotonous, untempted 
doing of good, I recognize the mind of 
Christ left with me when He made me. 
It is the Original Virtue, combating the 
Original Sin ! 

Impeded, denied, disowned? Yes, how 
many times ! The types of my life 
go astray. They fall crooked, they run 
awry, they break and clog and ruin. 
None the less for all that, precisely the 
more for all that if it results victorious, I 
have the mind of Christ ! 

My conscience, then, is that whereby 
I know with — scio cum — God. It 
warns, but only when God would warn. 
It condemns, but only when God would 
condemn. It can also approve and ad- 
vise, comfort and cheer. It is a friend, 
being a representative of the friendly 
God. 

Shall I forget my origin ? Aloft, in 
the counsels of the Most High, my 
nature was devised, my name first called ! 
From infinite reaches of spirit and power 
the Maker drew my substance and my 



lyo Help from 

form. Lovingly He thought it all out, 
how I — not generic Man, but I, this sole 
I — should look and act and feel and 
think. Patiently, through eons of the 
past, He planned — for me. Masterfully, 
through ranges of omnipotencies. He 
searched for my component parts and 
fashioned them in one. And in their 
midst He set — His mind. 

Oh, the wonder of it, the joy of it, the 
glory of it ! What treasure have I, 
to match my conscience ? Dearer than 
the apple of my eye, for it is the eye of 
God. Dearer than the power of thought, 
for it is the mind of Christ. Strip me of 
all things else, blind me, divest me of 
all other apprehension, all stores of 
memory and knowledge, and leave me 
with this sole possession, and I shall be 
infinitely rich ! 

So I will exult in my conscience. I 
will fear only its silence. When it 
upbraids me, I will be only the more 
sure that I have the mind of Christ. 
When it warns me, I will hold up my 
head, for the mind of Christ has spoken, 
and from my very soul. 

So I will cherish my conscience, and I 
will magnify it. Yes, I will fostef 
and enlarge the mind of Christ within 
me! 

For we must forget our comparison. 
Man is no machine. Still less has 



Conscience 171 

the Inventor gone away and left him to 
himself. He is invisible. He has writ- 
ten the Letter. He has sent the Repre- 
sentative. But He is also here. And 
both Letter and Representative assure us 
that He is here. 

And man is more than matter, inert 
and passive. This machine can re- 
make itself, can enlarge or contract its 
dimensions, can thrust from it the mind 
of its Inventor, or enlarge its chambers, 
reach forth, and draw more of that mind 
to itself. 

Ihave a mind for books, a mind whereby 
I revel in history and biography, 
in essays and poems, a mind that can 
store up facts and follow reasoning. 
There is nothing I can do with this mind 
that I cannot do with my conscience, the 
mind of Christ within me. 

My book mind — I can stifle or inspire, 
neglect or train, dwarf or develop. 
I can feed it with Voltaire or Isaiah, with 
Tupper or Shakespeare. I can use it or 
tie it up. I can enrich it with the spoils 
of all centuries, or I can let it go squaHd 
and bare. 

So with my conscience, the mind of 
Christ within me. I can send it to 
school ; for as Christ was born a babe in 
Bethlehem, so His mind is born unde- 
veloped in our souls. That school is the 



172 Help from 

Bible, and the example and words of 
good men, and prayer and honest medi- 
tation. 

I can exercise my conscience, setting it 
to hard tasks, overcoming desires and 
tendencies and temptations. I can feed 
it and use it and develop it into massive 
strength, and ever as it grows I can make 
more room for it in my life. 

Or — and how easily ! — I can lull my 
conscience to sleep ; kick it, all 
stupid, into a corner ; push it back when 
it rises, and bid it be quiet. I can afford 
it no teaching, no training, no models. 
I can cramp its quarters and stint its food. 
I can do all this, and more. I can kill 
my conscience. 

Kill the mind of Christ within me ! 
Slay the memorial of Himself which 
the Maker left with His creation ! Des- 
troy that whereby I think with God ! 



o that henceforth I am like a telescope 
whose great lens is broken, and the 
heavens are empty to it. 



s 



jforblD It, © xtvQ 3f atber ! jf orbit) it, lov^ 
\XKQ IRedeemet ! fforblD it, ttbou Comtortet 
Divine ! Zlbat woulD be tbe aj:e upon tbe 
BtretcbeD cable^ ZTbat woulD be tbe final 
ein, unpardonable, because it could no 
longer deeire pardon* jforgive me, tbat 11 
bave 60 otten made a mocl; ot conscience* 



Conscience 173 

SoxQivc me, tbat IT bave eo otten tolloweD 
tbe mlnD ot tlesb anD ecorneD tbe miuD ot 
Cbrt6t, or in m^ tolli^ tncD to tollow botb ! 
IF will no longer torget m^ upper self, tbat 
^eettn^ wbtcb ^bou baDst tor me betore 
tbe worlD wae* Ibencetortb mi2 prfcelese 
treasure 6ball be tbla link tbat biuDs me to 
It, tbl6 mysterious tol^en ot ^b^ purpose 
tor me^ :6\?ermore now IT will strive to 
tbink witb Zbcc more pertectli^t till H in 
JTbee anD ^bou in me are maDe perfect in 
one, anD m^ conscience bas become a:bs 
conscience ! ^be tbou^bt were blaspbemi^, 
XorD 5esus, baDst a:bou not maDe it Zh'o, 
prai^er tor me* Hn ^b^ strengtb 11 seek it, 
tbrouQb ^b^ grace 1F await it* amen* 




XX 

Help from Friendship 

HE temptations that assail one in 
soHtude are best to be met in a 
crowd, but the temptations of 
the crowd are never best met in 
soHtude. There is no tempta- 
tion that a friend cannot help us defeat. 

A man who falls under many tempta- 
tions may have many acquaintances 
but he cannot have many friends. 

Because a friend is some one who holds 
you to your best self, while an ac- 
quaintance accepts you, or leaves you, as 
you choose to be. An acquaintance 
studies to make himself pleasing to you, 
but a friend studies to make you pleasing 
to God. 

An acquaintance dares not or cares not 
to offend you. A friend does not 
dare not to offend you, if your displeas- 
ure is the road to your reformation. 

And so ^a foolish man is most often 
known by this, that he drives away 
his friends and cleaves to his acquaint- 
ances, who will not cleave to him. Thus 
he cherishes his complacency, and his sins. 

174 



Friendship 175 

My brother ! If you are tempted, and 
have a friend, count him chief of 
your worldly goods. Cling to his side, 
though his dagger pierce you daily. It 
is a surgeon's lancet. 

And if you have no friend, while ten 
thousand men and women nod to 
you and greet you in parlors, seek a 
friend as your most earnest worldly pur- 
suit, and beg a friend in your prayers to 
heaven. 



H 



ow few friends there are ! 



How few take time for friendship ! 
We have long hours for gold and 
silver and banknotes or for what we 
boastfully call our work in the world, 
and we have grudged minutes for the 
gold of eternity which is character and 
the work of eternity which is fashioning 
it. Review yesterday. Did it hold, 
gathering all the minutes, half an hour 
for friendship ? 

Yet friendship requires time. All 
good things need time, and the best 
things the most time. You cannot in 
chance encounters and hasty glimpses 
grow at home in another life, and learn 
the temptations that the other himself 
after a lifetime with himself neither 
understands nor conquers. Elisha, in 
that dark chamber of the Shunammite, 
stretched himself upon the boy, once 



176 Help from 

and again, his mouth upon his mouth, 
his eyes upon his eyes, his hands upon 
his hands, before the flesh waxed warm 
and the child opened his eyes. Thus 
Ehsha acted a parable of friendship. 

And how few take pains for friendship ! 
How few plan for it ! It is treated 
as a haphazard, fortuitous thing. May 
good luck send us friends ; we will not 
go after them. May favoring fortune 
bind our friendships ; we will take no 
stitches ourselves. Review^ yesterday, 
and all your yesterdays. Did they open 
with any thought for friendship — its pur- 
suit, its retention, its glorification ? 

Yet friendship requires painstaking. No 
art is so difficult, no craft so ardu- 
ous. Roll a ball of clay and expect it to 
become a rose in your hand, but never 
expect acquaintanceship, without care 
and thought, to blossom into friendship. 

Trade is not conducted without a pro- 
gramme and much toil. Legislation 
is not obtained by aimless talk. No de- 
vice or employment or phase of society 
cares for itself. But friendship is the 
most intricate of trades, the loftiest of 
laws, the climax of society ; and shall it 
care for itself? 

How few have insight for friendship ! 
You must know more than the color 
of your friend's eyes, — the very hue of 



Friendship 1 77 

his fancies ; more than his height, — the 
Teachings of his aspirations ; and more 
than his weight, — the unseen burdens 
that depress his soul. 

How few have sympathy for friend- 
ship ! It is easy to say, '' I am so 
sorry for you," but does your heart ache 
while you say it ? It is easy to say, '' I 
congratulate you," but does all the sky 
shine brighter for your friend's joy ? Is 
his food meat to you ? Does blood 
really flow through the nexus of your 
lives ? 

And how few have courage for friend- 
ship ! The daring that offers blame 
instead of the desired praise. The bold- 
ness that lays a healing finger upon the 
hurt. The faithfulness that adheres to 
faultfinding when one longs for occasion 
to commend. The loving strength that 
will even sacrifice friendship rather than 
be untrue to it. 

For friendship is based on independ- 
ence. If I am your friend, you are 
more necessary to me than your friend- 
ship. If I can know you pure and wise 
and beautiful, I can dispense with your 
friendship. Or rather, I can intermit it, 
knowing well how eternity will restore 
it. This is the high, sad test of friend- 
ship. Fortunate are you if you know a 
man who can stand the test. Alas for 
you if you ever require it ! 



^ 



178 Help from 

This being friendship, how helpful it is 
in temptation ! Friendship takes you 
out of yourself in alluring requirement, 
and the sinful man longs to get away 
from himself. Friendship gives you a 
new self, the self of your friend ; and a 
new hfe, the life of your friend ; and the 
sinful man longs immeasurably for a new 
self, a new life. 

For there is no other way to win 
friends than this, that you be a 
friend. 

That is why friendship is helpful — not 
so much because it helps you as be- 
cause it compels you to help your friend. 
Selfishness is the foundation of sin, and 
friendship is the destruction of selfish- 
ness. 

If you would find your arms around a 
man, extend your hands to lift him 
up. You are in a pit yourself, but you 
can always find some one in a lower pit 



G 



o out after friendship. As a man 
prospects for golden nuggets, seek 
the soul you can help, though ever so 
little. As you wash the sands for that, 
you will be washing the stains from 
your soul. 

Go out after friendship. It is well to 
company with the wise, the pure, 
the beautiful. They too need friends. 



Friendship 1 79 

They have become wise and pure and 
beautiful because, in part, they have en- 
tered into the sageness and health and 
grace of friendship. They need to con- 
tinue it by helping you, entering into 
friendship with you. It is half of friend- 
ship, a blessed half, to receive where you 
cannot yet give. 

But you can also give. No life so 
wretched, no soul so debauched, but 
it has something to bestow. Though 
only a look of love, only a word of kind- 
liness — only ! when those are king's treas- 
ures ! Indeed, O my brother despairing 
amid your temptations, if I were to say 
that you had nothing you could give 
another man, of guidance, inspiration, or 
grace, you would be prompt to deny me. 

Give it ! Give it ! Pour yourself out, 
your best self, for some one. Only 
by serving the one has a man ever come 
to serve humanity. 

Give it ! Give it ! In original fashion, 
your own fashion, though no one 
in all the world has yet done just that 
thing for another. Or, though it is a 
very commonplace thing that any one 
might be doing for another. 

Give it ! Give it ! Whether the ob- 
ject of your friendship becomes a 
friend or not. It is a most hindering 



i8o Help from 

error to suppose that two are required 
for a friendship. The most enriching 
friendships of all time have been lonely 
ones. V>Q you a friend. 

Give it ! Give it ! Through ridicule, 
scorn, rebuff; through failure and 
fainting and fear ; through doubt and 
despair. Friendship has no yesterdays 
and no to-morrows. 

And as you give it — however little — to 
one who has less, you w^ill want to 
give more ; and as you give more, you 
will want to give your best, and a great, 
pure longing for the best will spring up 
within you, — for the best, that you may 
give. It is the running channel that en- 
larges itself. 

Yes, and it is the running channel that 
is clean. As the currents of love and 
helpfulness begin to flow, how they will 
loosen that encrusted vice, how they will 
wash away that foulness, and how, as 
they grow in bulk and power, they will 
sweep the filth from your soul ! 

Is friendship, then, to be our saviour 
from sin? Do we need no Cross? 
Do we need no Christ ? 

Ah, there is no friendship without the 
Friend ! Neither can it be begun, 
nor continued, nor enjoyed, without the 
Friend. I have said that friendship does 



Friendship i8i 

not require two ; it does, but the other 
is Christ ! 

His Hfe was an incarnation of friend- 
ship. The angels sung it over the 
manger, " Good will to men." The 
lepers knew it, upon whom He laid un- 
fearing hands. The outcasts knew it, 
with whom He sat at meat. Doubters 
knew it, whom He led with gentle pa- 
tience. His enemies knew it, whom His 
love condemned. His disciples knew it, 
whom with His dying breath He called 
friends. The great world shall yet know 
it, being drawn to the Hfted cross of 
friendship. 

That the Almighty is our Friend. That 
the universe, all universes, time and 
space and all providence, are friendly. 
That we should be friends. That the 
way of friendship is the way of the 
Cross. This is the message of Christ. 

He sought out the lowest. He needed 
no answering friendship; though 
He longed for it, and longs for it. He 
gave His best, His all. He gave un- 
stintedly, whatever men would take. 
He gave humbly, with no parade, more 
lavishly by Sychar's well than in Pilate's 
hall. He gave persistently, unchecked 
by ridicule, undismayed by ingratitude, 
undaunted by hostility. 

e had no sins for His friendship to 
wash away. The channel of His 



H 



i82 Friendship 

life was unimpeded, and the fulness of 
God swept through it. But His friend- 
ship is the hving water that washes away 
our sins. 

3Frien&, jfrienD, enDlessl^ xtv^ jfrtenD ! 
jfrom tbe bCQinnlnG of be^inntnge mis 
ffrteuD ! G:brouGb all everlaettnQa mis 
jfricnD ! 2lmlD all sine anD temptations, 
all tailures auD ebame, m^ ffrienD anD onlis 
mis JFtteuD ! /Ift^ cleanetn^ anD purltiSt © 
afrlenD! /Ilb^ contlDence anD upbolDlng, © 
jfrieuD! /Ilb^ bope anD jo^, © J'rfenD! 
flmplanter ot love auD grace, m^ jfrteuD ! 
ITnepirer ot e^mpatb^ anD patience, m^ 
ffrienD ! ©iver ot ineigbt anD wisdom, mis 
3f rienD ! mben otbete tall awa^ in 0ors= 
rowing Despair ot me, wben 11 abandon m^:s 
eelt anD lie Down in tbe Dust, wben mis 
worlD is m^ sintul Desire, still, still mis 
af rienD ! IFnto new courage anD tbe up:* 
leaping ot will, into tbe glaD Dawn ot purity 
anD manbooD, into tbe strite tbat means 
victoris at last, ^bis trienDsbip, © m^ 
af rienD 1 Mitb no postponing, witb no re:» 
serve, witb no Doubt, now, now, all tbat 
If am, all tbat ^bou art, H a trienD anD 
^bou mis JFrienD, to=Dais, all Daiss, torever 
anD ever» amen* 




BOOKS BY 

AMOS R. WELLS 






Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the 

United Society of Christian Endeavor, 

Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass. 



Sermons in Stones. 

Ninety-four essays, giving practical lessons for life 
drawn from every-day surroundings, or based upon 
facts in geology, astronomy, botany, and physics. 
An indexed book of illustrations for speakers and 
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"In his Illustrations from nature he has the charm and 
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\)oo^."— Canadian Epworth Era. " Honest, manly thinking.'* 
—The Standard. " Strong, terse, pithy XiaW^^.''— Methodist 
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Review. " The preacher wUl find here suggestive material 
both in things to put and the way of putting them." — The 
Outlook. "Not a dull page in it."— Herald and Preshyfer. 
" Quite the equal of Gotthold's ' Emblems.' "—Missionary 
Herald. " The author reminds us of Henry Drummond." 
—Zion's Herald- " Many a sermon and Sunday-school lesson 
would be transfigured if preachers and teachers had a 
touch of Mr. Wells's happy faculty."— r/ie Christian World 
(London). 

The Upward Look. 

A book of devotional meditations, first published under 
the title, " Golden Rule Meditations," there being 
added in the new edition prayers for each day of a 
month. Price, postpaid, 50 cents. 
" Tender and sensible meditations upon the religious 
element in the experiences of daily \\fe."—Review of Reviews. 
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speaks to heart in these pages."— iV^?o York Observer. " Con- 
cise, reverent, and rememberable, mingling devoutness and 
he\])f Illness. "—Sunday School Times. 



When Thou Hast Shut Thy Door. 

A book of meditations for the still hour. Price, post 
paid, 60 cents. 
" Mr. Wells must have looked deep into his own heart, and 
far out over the tossing waves of human life, and up to the 
great calm of the Eternal Heart, before he could write this 
book. In sixty-eight brief soliloquies, meditations, intro- 
spections, retrospections, aspirations, confessions, prayers, 
communings, free heart-motions, the mirror is held up to 
the heart for self-revealment. A blessing is tn the book."— 
The Evangehcal. 



How to Work. 

How to Play. 

How to Study. 

Three volumes of practical talks to young folks. Bound 
in uniform style. Price, postpaid, 75 cents each. 

"Professor Wells knows how to write interestingly, as 
well as instructively, and lie has done young people a ser- 
vice in these little studies."— -S'Mwd'a?/ School Times. "A re- 
markable series of little books. The chapters are short, the 
sentences terse, and every paragraph sparkles with life."— 
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Presbyterian Review. " Brief, familiar, well-loaded chapters 
that convey tons of common sense to the doors of the un- 
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Business. 

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into the hands of a young man or woman." — Advance. 
" Just the kind of counsel needed by so many of our plod- 
ding, hard-working, business-enthralled t^qo^Iq."— Methodist 
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The Business Man's Religion. 

A practical treatise on the religious life of the business 
man, in the office, at home, in the Sunday school, 
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cents. 

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sentence is suggestive and s>tmm\2tX.mg."— Christian Guar- 
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Done Every Day. 

Eight essays on acts of daily life, such as bowing, walk- 
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the door-bell. Price, postpaid, 35 cents. 



Sunday-School Success. 

Forty - four chapters on the different phases of the 
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Sunday school. Price, postpaid, $1.25. 

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vfTitte^w."— Sunday- tSchool Chronicle (London). "No better 
investment could be made by any superintendent or pastor 
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— The Standard. "A perfect mine of information."— C/im- 
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ing advice.— Western Christian Advocate. " The sparkle and 
dash, the amazing versatility, the humor and satire of the 
author's style are so engaging and entertaining that the 
book is sure to be read, and sure to enable its solid value in 
spirit and purpose to become effective."— Zrar(/"orc? Seminary 
Record. 



A Bible Year. 

A carefully worked out plan for reading the Bible 
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Just to Help. 



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fhevii."— Religious Telescope. "All clean and good and helpful 
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Foreman Jennie. 

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The Caxton Club. 

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Elijah Tone, Citizen. 

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."It abounds in practical suggestions."— Sunday School 
Times. " Young men and all interested in promoting the 
public welfare will do well to secure it." — The Congregation- 
alism " It shows what ought to be done, what may be done, 
and how to do it."— Christian Work. 



Rollicking Rhymes for Youngsters. 

Humorous and serious poems for children, illustrated 
with 26 page pictures in colors by L. J. Bridgman. 
Price, postpaid, $1.00. 
"Nobody who reads these verses can fail to see how 
thoroughly Mr. Wells understands children."— i/ar^/are^ E. 
Sangster. " Sparkling and merry."— TAe Ow^Zoo/5-. "Little 
gems of pathos, humor, and fancy."— T'^e Baptist Union. 
" The children and their elders can enjoy it together."— 
^^Pansj/." "Not one bit of pessimism in these frolicsome 
\eTses."—Luthera7i World. "Wise lessons playfully told."— 
United Presbyterian. " The artist's illustrations are humor- 
ous and perfectly delightful."— Christian Observer. "Fun 
and wholesome suggestion cleverly blended." — The Ex- 
aminer. 



The Cheer Book. 

A year book, containing sunshiny selections, in prose 
or poetry, for each day of the year. A storehouse of 
optimism. Price, postpaid, $1.00. 

" The author has gathered just the right sentence, a para- 
graph, a poem, with which to start the day right."— Univer- 
salist Leader. " Wholesome from beginning to end."— Chris- 
tian Standard. " From cover to cover it contains a long 
and iterated antidote against worry." — Evangelist. "A 
sweet gift from friend to friend."— Christian Observer. 

Little Sermons for One. 

A volume of religious meditations. Price, postpaid, 
35 cents. 
" These sermons are little only in the space they occupy." 
--Lutheran Evangelist. "A child can read them, and a man 
can profit by them."— T'/ie Examiner. "Messages from the 
heart to the heart."— 7%e Silver Cross. 



Nutshell Musings. 

A book of devotional meditations based upon little-used 
Bible texts. Price, postpaid, 25 cents. 
" They are healthful and helpful, conceived and written 
in the happy, thoughtful vein in which the author knows so 
well how to work."— 7%e Baptist Union. "They are brief, 
practical, biblical. They may be read amid the daily cares 
as you would take a capsule of condensed food."— 77ie 
Epworth Herald. 



Three Years with the Children. 

One hundred and fifty-six original talks with children, 
suitable for children's sermons, the primary Sunday- 
school class, the home, or the Junior society. Many 
blackboard talks and object lessons. A wide diver- 
sity of subjects. Price, postpaid, $1.25. 

" One of the best of its kind." — Presbyterian Review. 
*' Nothing more animated, original, and altogether service- 
able for its purpose has appeared."— *SMwc?a2/ School Times. 
*' A treasure-house of practical suggestions." — Record of 
Christian Work. " None of them dull." — The Teacher's 
Monthly (Canada). "An excellent aid."— Christian Intelli- 
gencer. "Helpful hints for pastors and teachers."— T'/ie 
Congregationalist. "A very helpful stmiulant and assistant 
In the acquirement of the enviable art of simple speech." 
— The Watchman. "Mr. Wells knows how to talk to chVL- 
6ieji."— Baptist Union. 



The Junior Manual. 

The most complete collection ever made of plans for 
children's religious societies. 40 chapters. 304 
pages. Price, postpaid, cloth, $1.25; boards, 75 
cents. 

" The best and most complete manual for Junior workers 
ever published."— The Watchword. " Packed full of practical 
plans."— TTie Christian World. " One cannot be too enthusi- 
astic about this book."— TTie American Friend. "Full of 
valuable Yn^bteridil."— Congregationalist. "It would be hard 
to stay in ruts with such a fertile guide-book as this in 
hand."— TAe Advance. 



Junior Recitations. 



Declamations and dialogues, original and selected, suit- 
able for use in children's religious societies and 
Sunday-school concerts. Each piece is accompanied 
with directions for rendering it. Price, postpaid, 50 
cents. 
"A useful manual." — 77ie Standard. "Everything is 

usable and helpful."— 7%e Watchman. 



The Officers' Handbook. 

A full collection of plans for oflBcers of young people's 
religious societies, together with a summary of par- 
liamentary law. Price, postpaid, 35 cents. 



Prayer-Meeting Methods. 

A comprehensive manual for young people's prayer 
meetings. Price, postpaid, 35 cents. 
" The style Is crisp, and the matter exceedingly suggestive 
and practical."— r/ie Congrer/ationalist. 



Social Evenings. 

A collection of 178 games and entertainments suited 
for church socials and the home. Price, postpaid, 
35 cents. 

" Highly amusing and instructive." — Mail and Empire. 
"An admirable collection."— Christian Work. 



Social to Save. 

A collection of games and social entertainments, supple- 
mentary to " Social Evenings." Price, postpaid, 35 
cents. 

" The two books are equally good and practical, the games 
being different in each." — Woman's Journal. " Just the 
thing for social committees."— T'/je Standard. 



The Missionary Manual. 

The most extensive collection ever made of plans for 
missionary work in young people's societies. Price, 
postpaid, 35 cents. 

"Almost everything that can be suggestive and useful In 
regard to young people's missionary ineetings."— Baptist 
Missionary Magazine. " Its pages are packed with plans and 
bristle with fresh suggestions."— T'/ze Baptist Union. "An 
unfailing source of inspiration and help."— TVie Mission Field. 
" Invaluable to all missionary committees, whether in young 
people's societies or in churches."— Missionary Herald. 



Our Unions. 

A manual for officers of young people's religious unions 
and conventions. Price, postpaid, 35 cents. 
"Full of businesslike and sensible suggestions." — 77ie 
Congregationalist, 



FEB 20 1903 



I 

.llinn.fl.^.'^y OF CONGRESS 



029 789 404 3 



